Bi-Jacobi fields and Riemannian cubics for left-invariant SO(3)

© 2016 International Press. Bi-Jacobi fields are generalized Jacobi fields, and are used to efficiently compute approximations to Riemannian cubic splines in a Riemannian manifold M. Calculating bi-Jacobi fields is straightforward when M is a symmetric space such as bi-invariant SO(3), but not for Lie groups whose Riemannian metric is only left-invariant. Because left-invariant Riemannian metrics occur naturally in applications, there is also a need to calculate bi-Jacobi fields in such cases. The present paper investigates bi-Jacobi fields for left-invariant Riemannian metrics on SO(3), reducing calculations to quadratures of Jacobi fields. Then left-Lie reductions are used to give an easily implemented numerical method for calculating bi-Jacobi fields along geodesics in SO(3), and an example is given of a nearly geodesic approximate Riemannian cubic.