Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2015
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.