Jacobi fields and linear connections for arbitrary second-order ODEs. (Q1864913)

The authors generalize Jacobi fields and Raychaudhuri's equation from the case of the equation of geodesics to the case of a second-order ordinary equation of the form \(\ddot x^a= f^a(t,x, \dot x)\) on a manifold \(M\). The results are obtained in intrinsic way within the framework of differential geometry. The above second order equation can be interpreted as a vector field on the evolution space \(E=\mathbb{R}\times TM\). This vector field also yields a linear connection on \(E\) and a \((1,1)\)-tensor field on \(E\), called the \textit{shape map}. The authors define the Raychaudhuri and Jacobi equations in terms of the previous objects.