Abstract
Discusses a variational functional for scattering theory which has been recently proposed by Takatsuka and McKoy (1980). It is shown that this functional can provide results with a purely discrete set of functions which are approximately equivalent to those obtained by Lucchese et al. (1980) from the first iteration of the iterative Schwinger method. Applications to the scattering of electrons by systems including CO+ and LiH illustrate this relationship and other features of the method.