Scattering theory and some myths of quantum mechanics

As a long-time practitioner of quantum theory applied to scattering, I would venture to suggest that an appreciation of the physics of scattering processes leads one to question some commonly-held views of general quantum mechanics. Following my own experience, I will discuss the Born - Oppenheimer approximation, the time – dependent Schrodinger equation, quantum coherence and entanglement, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the quantum to classical transition. The latter topic is illuminated particularly by the so-called Imaging Theorem of scattering theory. This theorem shows how both classical and quantum properties co-exist in an asymptotic scattering wave function. Although known for eighty years the significance of this result has been emphasized only recently.