TITLE: Group actions in a homotopy category
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: Let $M$ be a model category and $G$ a finite group, and equip the category $M^G$ of $G$-objects in $M$ with, say, a projective model structure.  Then there is a canonical functor
$$\mathrm{Ho}(M^G) \to \mathrm{Ho}(M)^G. $$
Surprisingly (to me), if $M$ is additive and the cardinality of $G$ is invertible in $M$, then this functor is fully faithful.
I learned this from 1303.0153 which says that although it is "certainly well-known, we haven’t been able to find it in the literature".  But surely someone has noticed this or something like it before?  Even an offhand remark without a proof would be a useful reference, even in some special case like chain complexes over $\mathbb{Q}$ or localized spectra.

REPLY [4 votes]: The spectral sequence I constructed with Niles Johnson was precisely designed to handle questions of this sort (here is a version that is closer to the publication version: T-algebra SS). A special case of your question is considered in Section 5.1. Our methods require a suitably enriched model category (we focus on simplicial model categories), but it is easy to see that you get a similar spectral sequence for spectral or chain complex enrichments. In such a case the obstructions to the existence and uniqueness of a lift of a given map $f\colon X\rightarrow Y$ from $\mathrm{Ho}(M)^G$ to $\mathrm{Ho}(M^G)$ lie in the positive dimensional Borel cohomology of $X$ with coefficients in various shifts of $Y$. Using a tensor and cotensor with spaces, we can write this more precisely: the obstructions are the $t$th cohomology groups of the cosimplicial abelian group $\mathrm{ho}(M^G)_{\downarrow Y}(G^{\bullet+1}\otimes X,Y^{S^t}))$ for $t>0$. Here the source has the simplicial structure coming from a bar construction.
When the order of $G$ acts invertibly on these cohomology groups, the restriction and transfer homomorphisms exhibit these groups as retracts of the corresponding cohomology with the trivial group. Of course these groups are trivial in positive degrees so there is a unique lift of each map.
Of course, I am assuming some kind of nice enriched model structure here, so I am not answering your question exactly. On the other hand, in these case I think you can get away with less: You probably just need $Y$ to be a homotopy monoid in $\mathrm{Ho}(M)$ (to get the $E_2$ description as a bunch of abelian groups) and you only need the order of $G$ to act invertibly on this $E_2$ term in positive cohomological degrees.
I apologize that the linked reference is not quite complete. We are in the middle of making revisions for publication. The article will later appear in Advances in Mathematics.