UNITARY FUNCTOR CALCULUS WITH REALITY

We construct a calculus of functors in the spirit of orthogonal calculus, which is designed to study ‘functors with reality’ such as the Real classifying space functor, $\BU_\Bbb{R}(-)$ . The calculus produces a Taylor tower, the n-th layer of which is classified by a spectrum with an action of $C_2 \ltimes \U(n)$ . We further give model categorical considerations, producing a zigzag of Quillen equivalences between spectra with an action of $C_2 \ltimes \U(n)$ and a model structure on the category of input functors which captures the homotopy theory of the n-th layer of the Taylor tower.

The cotangent complex and Thom spectra

The cotangent complex of a map of commutative rings is a central object in deformation theory. Since the 1990s, it has been generalized to the homotopical setting of $$E_\infty $$ E ∞ -ring spectra in various ways. In this work we first establish, in the context of $$\infty $$ ∞ -categories and using Goodwillie’s calculus of functors, that various definitions of the cotangent complex of a map of $$E_\infty $$ E ∞ -ring spectra that exist in the literature are equivalent. We then turn our attention to a specific example. Let R be an $$E_\infty $$ E ∞ -ring spectrum and $$\mathrm {Pic}(R)$$ Pic ( R ) denote its Picard $$E_\infty $$ E ∞ -group. Let Mf denote the Thom $$E_\infty $$ E ∞ -R-algebra of a map of $$E_\infty $$ E ∞ -groups $$f:G\rightarrow \mathrm {Pic}(R)$$ f : G → Pic ( R ) ; examples of Mf are given by various flavors of cobordism spectra. We prove that the cotangent complex of $$R\rightarrow Mf$$ R → M f is equivalent to the smash product of Mf and the connective spectrum associated to G.

EQUIVARIANT CALCULUS OF FUNCTORS AND-ANALYTICITY OF REAL ALGEBRAIC -THEORY

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 ${\it\rho}$-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 the main example, we show that Hesselholt and Madsen’s Real algebraic $K$-theory of a split square zero extension of Wall antistructures defines an analytic functor in the $\mathbb{Z}/2$-equivariant setting. We further show that the equivariant derivative of this Real $K$-theory functor is $\mathbb{Z}/2$-equivalent to Real MacLane homology.