Let $mathfrak{g}$ be a real or complex (finite dimensional) simple Lie algebra and $sigmainmathrm{Aut}mathfrak{g}$. The authors study automorphisms of the twisted loop algebra $L(mathfrak{g},sigma)$ of smooth $sigma$-periodic maps from $mathbb{R}$ to $mathfrak{g}$ as well as of the ``smooth'' affine Kac-Moody algebra $hat L(mathfrak{g},sigma)$, which is a $2$-dimensional extension of $L(mathfrak{g},sigma)$. It turns out that these automorphisms which either preserve or reverse the orientation of loops, and are correspondingly called to be of first and second kind, can be described essentially by curves of automorphisms of $mathfrak{g}$. If the order of the automorphisms is finite, then the corresponding curves in $mathrm{Aut}mathfrak{g}$ allow us to define certain invariants and these turn out to parametrize the conjugacy classes of the automorphisms. If their order is $2$ the authors carry this out in detail and deduce a complete classification of involutions and real forms (which correspond to conjugate linear involutions) of smooth affine Kac-Moody algebras.

The resulting classification can be seen as an extension of Cartan's classification of symmetric spaces, i.e. of involutions on $mathfrak{g}$. If $mathfrak{g}$ is compact, then conjugate linear extensions of involutions from $hat L(mathfrak{g},sigma)$ to conjugate linear involutions on $hat L(mathfrak{g}_{mathbb{C}},sigma_{mathbb{C}})$ yield a bijection between their conjugacy classes and this gives existence and uniqueness of Cartan decompositions of real forms of complex smooth affine Kac-Moody algebras.

The authors show that their methods work equally well also in the algebraic case where the loops are assumed to have finite Fourier expansions.