The Goodwillie tower and the EHP sequence

We study the interaction between the EHP sequence and the Goodwillie tower of the identity evaluated at spheres at the prime 2. Both give rise to spectral sequences (the EHP spectral sequence and the Goodwillie spectral sequence, respectively) which compute the unstable homotopy groups of spheres. We relate the Goodwillie filtration to the P map, and the Goodwillie differentials to the H map. Furthermore, we study an iterated Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence approach to the homotopy of the layers of the Goodwillie tower of the identity on spheres. We show that differentials in these spectral sequences give rise to differentials in the EHP spectral sequence. We use our theory to re-compute the 2-primary unstable stems through the Toda range (up to the 19-stem). We also study the homological behavior of the interaction between the EHP sequence and the Goodwillie tower of the identity. This homological analysis involves the introduction of Dyer-Lashoflike operations associated to M. Ching’s operad structure on the derivatives of the identity. These operations act on the mod 2 stable homology of the Goodwillie layers of any functor from spaces to spaces. Received by the editor September 27, 2010. Revised February 27, 2011. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 55Q40; Secondary 55Q15, 55Q25, 55S12.