Goodwillie calculus and Whitehead products (Q487119)

This paper studies the iterated Whitehead products in values of \(n\)-excisive functors which arise in homotopy calculus of functors. The main result is that, if \(F\) is such a functor and \(X\) is a finite space, the \((n+1)\)-fold iterated Whitehead products in \(F(X)\) vanish. After giving a helpful review of Whitehead (and Samelson) products, the authors construct a certain ``universal'' space (the homotopy limit of a certain punctured cubical diagram built out of wedges of spheres) where Whitehead products vanish. This space, along with standard functor calculus techniques (Blakers-Massey Theorem, (co)cartesian cubical diagrams), is then used in the proof of the main theorem. In the second part of the paper, the authors examine various notions of homotopy nilpotency. They are led to this because their main result says that, for \(F\) and \(X\) as above, \(\Omega F(X)\) is a homotopy nilpotent loop space (in the classical sense of \textit{I. Berstein} and \textit{T. Ganea} [Ill. J. Math. 5, 99--130 (1961; Zbl 0096.17602)]). They observe that such spaces are \(\text{Nil}_n\)-algebras in the homotopy category of spaces, where \(\text{Nil}_n\) is the algebraic theory describing nilpotent groups of class \(\leq n\). The authors then consider a ``better'' notion of homotopy nilpotency due to \textit{G. Biedermann} and \textit{W. G. Dwyer} [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 10, No. 1, 33--61 (2010; Zbl 1329.55008)] which is constructed from the Taylor tower of the identity and where \(\text{Nil}_n\)-algebras are always homotopy nilpotent. This leads to a rephrasing of the main theorem and a positive answer to a question asked by Biedermann and Dwyer: \((n+1)\)-fold iterated Whitehead products in \(X\) vanish if \(\Omega X\) is a homotopy nilpotent group of class \(\leq n\). The paper is clear, very nicely written, and is a useful contribution to the literature on homotopy calculus of functors.