Rational Orthogonal Calculus

Abstract

We show that one can use model categories to construct rational orthogonal calculus. That is, given a continuous functor from vector spaces to based spaces one can construct a tower of approximations to this functor depending only on the rational homology type of the input functor, whose layers are given by rational spectra with an action of $O(n)$. By work of Greenlees and Shipley, we see that these layers are classified by torsion $H^{\ast }(BSO(n))[O(n)/SO(n)]$-modules.

23 pages