  We revisit the problem of the existence of asymptotic massless boson fields
in quantum field theory. The well-known construction of such fields by Buchholz
[2], [4] is based on locality and the existence of vacuum vector, at least in
regions spacelike to spacelike cones. Our analysis does not depend on these
assumptions and supplies a more general framework for fields only very weakly
decaying in spacelike directions. In this setting the existence of appropriate
null asymptotes of fields is linked with their spectral properties in the
neighborhood of the lightcone. The main technical tool is one of the results of
a recent analysis by one of us [11], which allows application of the null
asymptotic limit separately to creation/annihilation parts of a wide class of
non-local fields. In vacuum representation the scheme allows application of the
methods of the Haag-Ruelle theory closely analogous to those of the massive
case. In local case this Haag-Ruelle procedure may be combined with the
Buchholz method, which leads to significant simplification.
