On the Structure of Abstract Hubbard Trees and the Space of Abstract Kneading Sequences of Degree Two

Abstract

One of the fundamental properties of the Mandelbrot set is that the set of postcritically finite parameters is structured like a tree. We extend this result to the set of quadratic kneading sequences and show that this space contains no irrational decorations. Along the way, we prove a combinatorial analogue to the correspondence principle of dynamic and parameter rays. Our key tool is to work simultaneously with the two equivalent combinatorial concepts of Hubbard trees and kneading sequences.