The aim of this paper is three-fold: (i) we construct a naturally occurring highly homotopy coherent operad structure on the derivatives of the identity functor on structured ring spectra which can be described as algebras over an operad $\mathcal{O}$ in spectra, (ii) we prove that every connected $\mathcal{O}$-algebra has a naturally occurring left action of the derivatives of the identity, and (iii) we show that there is a naturally occurring weak equivalence of highly homotopy coherent operads between the derivatives of the identity on $\mathcal{O}$-algebras and the operad $\mathcal{O}$.
Along the way, we introduce the notion of $\mathbf{N}$-colored operads with levels which -- by construction -- provides a precise algebraic framework for working with and comparing highly homotopy coherent operads, operads, and their algebras.
We study the interaction between the EHP sequence and the Goodwillie tower of the identity evaluated at spheres at the prime 2. Both give rise to spectral sequences (the EHP spectral sequence and the Goodwillie spectral sequence, respectively) which compute the unstable homotopy groups of spheres. We relate the Goodwillie filtration to the P map, and the Goodwillie differentials to the H map. Furthermore, we study an iterated Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence approach to the homotopy of the layers of the Goodwillie tower of the identity on spheres. We show that differentials in these spectra…
We prove a chain rule for the Goodwillie calculus of functors from spectra to spectra. We show that the (higher) derivatives of a composite functor $FG$ at a base object $X$ are given by taking the composition product (in the sense of symmetric sequences) of the derivatives of $F$ at $G(X)$ with the derivatives of $G$ at $X$. We also consider the question of finding $P_n(FG)$, and give an explicit formula for this when $F$ is homogeneous.
We describe a cooperad structure on the simplicial bar construction on a reduced operad of based spaces or spectra and, dually, an operad structure on the cobar construction on a cooperad. We also show that if the homology of the original operad (respectively, cooperad) is Koszul, then the homology of the bar (respectively, cobar) construction is the Koszul dual. We use our results to construct an operad structure on the partition poset models for the Goodwillie derivatives of the identity functor on based spaces and show that this induces the `Lie' operad structure on the homology groups of t…
We introduce general methods to analyse the Goodwillie tower of the identity functor on a wedge $X \vee Y$ of spaces (using the Hilton-Milnor theorem) and on the cofibre $\mathrm{cof}(f)$ of a map $f: X \rightarrow Y$. We deduce some consequences for $v_n$-periodic homotopy groups: whereas the Goodwillie tower is finite and converges in periodic homotopy when evaluated on spheres (Arone-Mahowald), we show that neither of these statements remains true for wedges and Moore spaces.
Recent work of Biedermann and Röndigs has translated Goodwillie's calculus of functors into the language of model categories. Their work focuses on symmetric multilinear functors and the derivative appears only briefly. In this paper we focus on understanding the derivative as a right Quillen functor to a new model category. This is directly analogous to the behaviour of Weiss's derivative in orthogonal calculus. The immediate advantage of this new category is that we obtain a streamlined and more informative proof that the n-homogeneous functors are classified by spectra with an action of the…
We prove two theorems about Goodwillie calculus and use those theorems to describe new models for Goodwillie derivatives of functors between pointed compactly-generated infinity-categories. The first theorem say that the construction of higher derivatives for spectrum-valued functors is a Day convolution of copies of the first derivative construction. The second theorem says that the derivatives of any functor can be realized as natural transformation objects for derivatives of spectrum-valued functors. Together these results allow us to construct an infinity-operad that models the derivatives…
We construct a Goodwillie tower of categories which interpolates between the category of pointed spaces and the category of spectra. This tower of categories refines the Goodwillie tower of the identity functor in a precise sense. More generally, we construct such a tower for a large class of infinity-categories C. We classify such Goodwillie towers in terms of the derivatives of the identity functor of C. As a particular application we show how this provides a model for the homotopy theory of simply-connected spaces in terms of coalgebras with Tate diagonals. Our classification of Goodwillie …
We develop a theory of Goodwillie calculus for functors between $G$-equivariant homotopy theories, where $G$ is a finite group. We construct $J$-excisive approximations of a homotopy functor for any finite $G$-set $J$. These fit together into a poset, the Goodwillie tree, that extends the classical Goodwillie tower. We prove convergence results for the tree of a functor on pointed $G$-spaces that commutes with fixed-points, and we reinterpret the Tom Dieck-splitting as an instance of a more general splitting phenomenon that occurs for the fixed-points of the equivariant derivative of these fun…
In this paper, we show that for reduced homotopy endofunctors of spaces, F, and for all $n \geq 1$ there are adjoint functors $R_n, L_n$ with $T_n F \simeq R_n F L_n$, where $P_n F$ is the $n$-excisive approximation to $F$, constructed by taking the homotopy colimit over iterations of $T_n F$. This then endows $T_n$ of the identity with the structure of a monad and the $T_n F$'s are the functor version of bimodules over that monad. It follows that each $T_n F$ (and $P_nF$) takes values in spaces of symmetric Lusternik-Schnirelman cocategory $n$, as defined by Hopkins. This also recovers recent…
We study the connection between the Goodwillie tower of the identity and the lower central series of the loop group on connected spaces. We define the simplicial theory of homotopy n-nilpotent groups. This notion interpolates between infinite loop spaces and loop spaces. We prove that the set-valued algebraic theory obtained by applying $π_0$ is the theory of ordinary n-nilpotent groups and that the Goodwillie tower of a connected space is determined by a certain homotopy left Kan extension. We prove that n-excisive functors of the form $ΩF$ have values in homotopy n-nilpotent groups.
We study the structure possessed by the Goodwillie derivatives of a pointed homotopy functor of based topological spaces. These derivatives naturally form a bimodule over the operad consisting of the derivatives of the identity functor. We then use these bimodule structures to give a chain rule for higher derivatives in the calculus of functors, extending that of Klein and Rognes. This chain rule expresses the derivatives of FG as a derived composition product of the derivatives of F and G over the derivatives of the identity. There are two main ingredients in our proofs. Firstly, we construct…
The derivatives of the identity functor on spaces in Goodwillie calculus forms an operad in spectra. Antolin-Camarena computed the mod 2 homology of free algebras over this operad for 1-connected spectra. In this present paper we carry out similar computations for mod p homology for odd primes p.
We synthesize work of U. Koschorke on link maps and work of B. Johnson on the derivatives of the identity functor in homotopy theory. The result can be viewed in two ways: (1) As a generalization of Koschorke's "higher Hopf invariants", which themselves can be viewed as a generalization of Milnor's invariants of link maps in Euclidean space; and (2) As a stable range description, in terms of bordism, of the cross effects of the identity functor in homotopy theory evaluated at spheres. We also show how our generalized Milnor invariants fit into the framework of a multivariable manifold calculus…
We study the splitting of the Goodwillie towers of functors in various settings. In particular, we produce splitting criteria for functors $F: \A \to M_A$ from a pointed category with coproducts to $A$-modules in terms of differentials of $F$. Here $A$ is a commutative $S$-algebra. We specialize to the case when $\A$ is the category of $\a$-algebras for an operad $\a$ and $F$ is the forgetful functor, and derive milder splitting conditions in terms of the derivative of $F$. In addition, we describe how triples induce operads, and prove that, roughly speaking, a triple $T$ is naturally equivale…
The Goodwillie derivatives of the identity functor on pointed spaces form an operad in spectra. Adapting a definition of Behrens, we introduce mod 2 homology operations for algebras over this operad and prove these operations account for all the mod 2 homology of free algebras on suspension spectra of simply-connected spaces.
We define a theory of Goodwillie calculus for enriched functors from finite pointed simplicial G-sets to symmetric G-spectra, where G is a finite group. We extend a notion of G-linearity suggested by Blumberg to define stably excisive and rho-analytic homotopy functors, as well as a G-differential, in this equivariant context. A main result of the paper is that analytic functors with trivial derivatives send highly connected G-maps to G-equivalences. It is analogous to the classical result of Goodwillie that "functors with zero derivative are locally constant". As main example we show that Hes…
We formulate and prove a chain rule for the derivative, in the sense of Goodwillie, of compositions of weak homotopy functors from simplicial sets to simplicial sets. The derivative spectrum dF(X) of such a functor F at a simplicial set X can be equipped with a right action by the loop group of its domain X, and a free left action by the loop group of its codomain Y = F(X). The derivative spectrum d(E o F)(X)$ of a composite of such functors is then stably equivalent to the balanced smash product of the derivatives dE(Y) and dF(X), with respect to the two actions of the loop group of Y. As an …
Let F be a homotopy functor with values in the category of spectra. We show that partially stabilized cross-effects of F have an action of a certain operad. For functors from based spaces to spectra, it is the Koszul dual of the little discs operad. For functors from spectra to spectra it is a desuspension of the commutative operad. It follows that the Goodwillie derivatives of F are a right module over a certain `pro-operad'. For functors from spaces to spectra, the pro-operad is a resolution of the topological Lie operad. For functors from spectra to spectra, it is a resolution of the trivia…
We describe new structure on the Goodwillie derivatives of a functor, and we show how the full Taylor tower of the functor can be recovered from this structure. This new structure takes the form of a coalgebra over a certain comonad which we construct, and whose precise nature depends on the source and target categories of the functor in question. The Taylor tower can be recovered from standard cosimplicial cobar constructions on the coalgebra formed by the derivatives. We get from this an equivalence between the homotopy category of polynomial functors and that of bounded coalgebras over this…
We consider a homotopy theory obtained from that of pointed spaces by inverting the maps inducing isomorphisms in $v_n$-periodic homotopy groups. The case n = 0 corresponds to rational homotopy theory. In analogy with Quillen's results in the rational case, we prove that this $v_n$-periodic homotopy theory is equivalent to the homotopy theory of Lie algebras in T(n)-local spectra. We also compare it to the homotopy theory of commutative coalgebras in T(n)-local spectra, where it turns out there is only an equivalence up to a certain convergence issue of the Goodwillie tower of the identity.
In the early 1980's the author proved G.W. Whitehead's conjecture about stable homotopy groups and symmetric products. In the mid 1990's, Arone and Mahowald showed that the Goodwillie tower of the identity had remarkably good properties when specialized to odd dimensional spheres. In this paper we prove that these results are linked, as has been long suspected. We give a state-of-the-art proof of the Whitehead conjecture valid for all primes, and simultaneously show that the identity tower specialized to the circle collapses in the expected sense. Key to our work is that Steenrod algebra modul…
We prove that a connected commutator (or NC) complete associative algebra can be recovered in the derived setting from its abelianization together with its natural induced structure. Specifically, we prove an equivalence between connected derived commutator complete associative algebras and connected commutative algebras equipped with a coaction of the comonad arising from the adjunction between associative and commutative algebras. This provides a Koszul dual description of connected derived commutator (or NC) complete associative algebras and furthermore may be interpreted as a theory of rel…
