  A while ago MLC (the conjecture that the Mandelbrot set is locally connected)
was proven for quasi-hyperbolic points by Douady and Hubbard, and for
boundaries of hyperbolic components by Yoccoz. More recently Yoccoz proved MLC
for all at most finitely renormalizable parameter values. One of our goals is
to prove MLC for some infinitely renormalizable parameter values. Loosely
speaking, we need all renormalizations to have bounded combinatorial rotation
number (assumption C1) and sufficiently high combinatorial type (assumption
C2).
  For real quadratic polynomials of bounded combinatorial type the complex a
priori bounds were obtained by Sullivan. Our result complements the Sullivan's
result in the unbounded case. Moreover, it gives a background for Sullivan's
renormalization theory for some bounded type polynomials outside the real line
where the problem of a priori bounds was not handled before for any single
polynomial.
  An important consequence of a priori bounds is absence of invariant
measurable line fields on the Julia set (McMullen) which is equivalent to
quasi-conformal (qc) rigidity. To prove stronger topological rigidity we
construct a qc conjugacy between any two topologically conjugate polynomials
(Theorem III). We do this by means of a pull-back argument, based on the linear
growth of moduli and a priori bounds. Actually the argument gives the stronger
combinatorial rigidity which implies MLC.
