On background-independent open-string field theory

A framework for background-independent open-string field theory is proposed. The approach involves using the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism, in a way suggested by recent developments in closed-string field theory, to implicitly define a gauge-invariant Lagrangian in a hypothetical "space of all open-string world-sheet theories." It is built into the formalism that classical solutions of the string field theory are Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin- (BRST-) invariant open-string world-sheet theories and that, when expanding around a classical solution, the infinitesimal gauge transformations are generated by the world-sheet BRST operator.