Jacobi fields vanishing at their initial point ($J(t)=(d{\exp }_p{)}_{tV}(t{D}_{t}J(0))$)

For $\gamma (t)={\exp }_p(tV)$, every Jacobi field with $J(0)=0$ is uniquely of the formDifferentiate the geodesic variation ${\exp }_p(t(V+sB))$ in $s$ to obtain the formula. Uniqueness of the Jacobi equation with prescribed initial value and derivative shows that all such fields are obtained. A nontrivial field vanishing at $t=L>0$ therefore corresponds to a nonzero vector in the kernel of $(d{\exp }_p{)}_{LV}$, giving the conjugate point criterion.