  Expansion of a wave function in a basis of eigenfunctions of a differential
eigenvalue problem lies at the heart of the R-matrix methods for both the
Schr\"odinger and Dirac particles. A central issue that should be carefully
analyzed when functional series are applied is their convergence. In the
present paper, we study the properties of the eigenfunction expansions
appearing in nonrelativistic and relativistic $R$-matrix theories. In
particular, we confirm the findings of Rosenthal [J. Phys. G: Nucl. Phys. 13,
491 (1987)] and Szmytkowski and Hinze [J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 29, 761
(1996); J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 29, 6125 (1996)] that in the most popular
formulation of the R-matrix theory for Dirac particles, the functional series
fails to converge to a claimed limit.
