Parabolic curves in Lie groups

Abstract

To interpolate a sequence of points in Euclidean space, parabolic splines can be used. These are curves which are piecewise quadratic. To interpolate between points in a (semi-)Riemannian manifold, we could look for curves such that the second covariant derivative of the velocity is zero. We call such curves Jupp and Kent quadratics or JK-quadratics because they are a special case of the cubic curves advocated by Jupp and Kent. When the manifold is a Lie group with bi-invariant metric, we can relate JK-quadratics to null Lie quadratics which arise from another interpolation problem. We solve JK-quadratics in the Lie groups SO(3) and SO(1,2) and in the sphere and hyperbolic plane, by relating them to the differential equation for a quantum harmonic oscillator.