Dyson series and T product
One of the most important tool in quantum mechanics is the Dyson series because it is the basis of the perturbative theory. There is a step in the derivation that I can't understand.
$\{H(t_i)\}$ are not commuting operators. The $T$ product is defined as follow:
$$ T[H(t)H(t')] = \theta(t-t')H(t)H(t') + \theta(t'-t)H(t')H(t) $$ where $\theta$ is the Heaviside function. You can extend it to $n$ factors, ordering them so that later times ($t$) stand to the left of earlier times.
I need to proof that: $$ \int_{-\infty}^{t} dt_1 \int_{-\infty}^{t_1} dt_2 \ldots \int_{-\infty}^{t_{n-1}} dt_n H(t_1)H(t_2)\ldots H(t_n) $$ is equal to $$\frac{1}{n!}\int_{-\infty}^{t} dt_1 \int_{-\infty}^{t} dt_2 \ldots \int_{-\infty}^{t} dt_n T[H(t_1)H(t_2)\ldots H(t_n)] $$
I tried to start with $n=2$, then I think it's easy to use induction, but I'm stuck:
$$\int_{-\infty}^{t} dt_1 \int_{-\infty}^{t} dt_2T[H(t_1)H(t_2)] = \int_{-\infty}^{t} dt_1 \int_{-\infty}^{t_1} dt_2 H(t_1)H(t_2) + \int_{-\infty}^{t} dt_1 \int_{t_1}^{t} dt_2 H(t_2)H(t_1)$$
but now? I tried to change variables ... can someone help me?
I tried also to visualized it as the integral over a square $(-\infty, t_1=t]\times (-\infty, t_2=t]$ subdivided into two triangles by the diagonal $t_2=t_1$ of an operator $K(t_1,t_2) = K(t_2,t_1)$ because $T[H(t_1)H(t_2)] = T[H(t_2)H(t_1)]$
Your last expansion is incorrect. For the simplest case $$\int_{t_o}^tdt'\int_{t_o}^{t'}dt'' H(t')H(t'')=\frac{1}{2}\int_{t_0}^tdt'\int_{t_0}^tdt''\mathcal{T}(H(t')H(t''))$$ The domain of integration was the triangle for the former expression while for the latter it is a square.
For three dimensions, the left expression would be integrated over a tetrahedron and the right expression would be integrated over a cube, which is 6 times the volume of the tetrahedron.
In general, the region of integration of the second expression would be a hypercube of $n$ dimensions, which has $n!$ of such simplexes. And so $$\int_{t_o}^tdt_1\int_{t_o}^{t_1}dt_2\cdots\int_{t_o}^{t_{n-1}}dt_n H(t_1)\cdots H(t_n)=\frac{1}{n!} \int_{t_o}^tdt_1\int_{t_o}^{t}dt_2\cdots\int_{t_o}^{t}dt_n \mathcal{T}(H(t_1)\cdots H(t_n))$$
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A picture might be worth more: