  The first step in any formalism that aims to connect a many-nucleon theory of
nucleon-nucleus scattering and the concept of an optical model potential in the
sense pioneered by Feshbach is to explain what is meant by the optical model
wavefunction. By definition this is a function of a single space coordinate
plus a set of single nucleon internal variables. This article gives a critique
of the definitio as it is frequently expressed in 2nd Quantisation language and
suggest a new definition which is more consistent with the requirements of
antisymmetry and translational invariance. A modification of the time-dependent
Green's function formalism is suggested.
