Second order differentiation formula on compact $RCD^*(K,N)$ spaces

Abstract: Aim of this paper is to prove the second order differentiation formula along geodesics in compact $RCD^*(K,N)$ spaces with $N<\infty$. This formula is new even in the context of Alexandrov spaces. We establish this result by showing that $W_2$-geodesics can be approximated up to second order, in a sense which we shall make precise, by entropic interpolation. In turn this is achieved by proving new, even in the smooth setting, estimates concerning entropic interpolations which we believe are interesting on their own. In particular we obtain: - equiboundedness of the densities along the entropic interpolations, - equi-Lipschitz continuity of the Schr\"odinger potentials, - a uniform weighted L2 control of the Hessian of such potentials. Finally, the techniques used in this paper can be used to show that the viscous solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation can be obtained via a vanishing viscosity method, in accordance with the smooth case.