Simplex integral in connection with time ordered exponential

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In Quantum Mechanics, one often defines the time ordered exponential like e.g. here.

Now my question is how the factor of $N!$ arises. I know the simplex volume as the following integral: \begin{equation} \int_{t_0}^t dt_1 \int_{t_1}^{t} dt_2 \cdots \int_{t_{N-1}}^t dt_N = \frac{(t-t_0)^N}{N!} \end{equation} However, I would like to know how to obtain the identity \begin{equation} \int_{t_0}^t dt_1 \int_{t_1}^{t} dt_2 \cdots \int_{t_{N-1}}^t dt_N~f(t_1)\cdots f(t_N) = \frac{1}{N!} \int_{t_0}^t dt_1\cdots \int_{t_{0}}^{t} dt_N~\mathbb{T}~(f(t_1)\cdots f(t_N)) \end{equation} where $\mathbb{T}$ is the time-ordering operator that acts as follows: \begin{equation} \mathbb{T}~(f(t_1)\cdots f(t_m))=f(t_{\pi(N)})\cdots f(t_{\pi(1)})\qquad\text{with}\qquad t_{\pi(N)}<\cdots < t_{\pi(1)} \end{equation} Thanks.

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Let's take the case where the $t_j$ are real numbers, the function $f$ is real valued, and $t_0=0$. The integral on the right hand side is over an $N$-cube, which is a union of $N!$ many $N$-simplices. There is one simplex for each permutation $\pi$ of $123\cdots N$, defined by $t\ge t_{\pi(N)}\ge\cdots\ge t_{\pi(1)}\ge 0$. For example with $N=2$ the simplices $0\le t_1 \le t_2 \le 1$ and $0\le t_2\le t_1\le 1$ subdivide the unit square.

The integral on the right hand side is equal to the sum of integrals over the simplices. In the summand corresponding to a permutation $\pi$, make the change of variables $$ s_j = t_{\pi(j)}. $$ Then $s_N\ge\cdots\ge s_1$, so the mapping from $s$ to $t$ takes a standard simplex to the one indexed by $\pi$. The matrix derivative of this transformation has determinant $\pm 1$, the signature of $\pi$. By the change of variables theorem for multiple integrals then $$ \int_{t\ge t_{\pi(N)}\ge\cdots\ge t_{\pi(1)}\ge 0} f(t_{\pi(1)})\cdots f(t_{\pi(N)}) d^N t = \int_{t\ge s_N\ge\cdots\ge s_1\ge 0}f(s_1)\cdots f(s_N)\,d^N s. $$ [By the way this shows that you have written the time-ordering in the wrong order.] This last integral is equal to the iterated integral on the left of your equation. Since each of the $N!$ integrals on the right is equal to the one integral on the left, it is necessary to divide the sum on the right by $N!$.

Your reference in Wikipedia allows $t$ in a ``real or complex field'' and $f(t_j)$ in an algebra over that field. I don't know what the integrals mean unless the $t_j$ are real, but you might be able to extend the argument to values in finite dimensional algebras by expanding the values $f(t_j)$ in terms of a basis, with coefficients that are real valued functions of $t$.