The product rule in Goodwillie calculus

Abstract

In this paper, we prove a product rule for Goodwillie derivatives: given a differentiable $\infty$-category $\mathcal{C}$ whose stabilization is equivalent to the $\infty$-category $\mathrm{Sp}$ of spectra, we show that the derivatives functor $\partial_* \colon \mathrm{Fun}^ω(\mathcal{C}, \mathrm{Sp}) \to \mathrm{RMod}_{\partial_*\mathrm{id}_\mathcal{C}}(\mathrm{SSeq}(\mathrm{Sp}))$ is strong symmetric monoidal, where the source is equipped with the pointwise tensor product and the target with Day convolution. Since the Koszul dual of $\partial_*\mathrm{id}_\mathcal{C}$ can be recovered as a coendomorphism operad from Day convolution, this product rule is useful for calculating the operad $\partial_*\mathrm{id}_\mathcal{C}$ in examples. We derive the product rule as a consequence of the more general statement that taking derivatives preserves cartesian products on the $(\infty, 2)$-categorical level. In fact, the main theme of this paper is that the extraction of Goodwillie derivatives preserves a lot of structure when regarded as a functor of $(\infty, 2)$-categories: apart from products, it also preserves cotensors and certain pullbacks. We illustrate how our results can be used to calculate Goodwillie derivatives by determining the operad structure on the derivatives of the identity functor in pointed spaces, algebras over an operad and sheaves on a site.