Coulomb Scattering. I. Single Channel

With the aid of a Coulomb ``free propagator'' Uc(±)(t) constructed from the asymptotic form of the conventional time-independent solution to the scattering problem in a pure Coulomb field, Mo/ller wave operators are shown to exist for general Coulomb-like (Coulomb + short-range) potentials. It is emphasized that when scattering occurs in such long-range fields, one should distinguish three classes of states: the prepared and detected states, the scattering states, and certain asymptotic states which are peculiar to long-range potentials. The existence of the third class as a class distinct from the first suggests a connection between Uc(±)(t) and the quantum theory of measurements.