Irreducible complexity of iterated symmetric bimodal maps

We introduce a tree structure for the iterates of symmetric bimodal maps and identify a subset which we prove to be isomorphic to the family of unimodal maps. This subset is used as a second factor for a $\ast$-product that we define in the space of bimodal kneading sequences. Finally, we give some properties for this product and study the *-product induced on the associated Markov shifts

Ä-product of Markov matrices.

In this paper we introduce a Ä-operation over Markov transition matrices, in the context of subshift of finite type, reproducing symbolic properties of the iterates of the critical point on a one-parameter family of unimodal maps. To the *-product between kneading sequences we associate a Ä-product between the corresponding Markov matrices