Highly dissipative Henon map behavior in the 4-level model of the CO2 laser with modulated losses

We show that the four-level model for the CO2 laser with modulated losses behaves in a qualitatively similar way as the highly dissipative Henon map. The ubiquity of elements of the universal sequence, their related symbolic dynamics, and the presence of reverse bifurcations of chaotic bands in the model are reminiscent of the logistic map which is the limit of the Henon map when the Jacobian equals zero, The coexistence of attractors, its dynamics related to contraction of volumes in phase space and the associated return maps can be correlated with those of the highly dissipative Henon map.