Simplicial differential calculus, divided differences, and construction of Weil functors

Abstract

We define a simplicial differential calculus by generalizing divided differences from the case of curves to the case of general maps, defined on general topological vector spaces, or even on modules over a topological ring K. This calculus has the advantage that the number of evaluation points growths linearly with the degree, and not exponentially as in the classical, ``cubic'' approach. In particular, it is better adapted to the case of positive characteristic, where it permits to define Weil functors corresponding to scalar extension from K to truncated polynomial rings K[X]/(X^{k+1}).