We present an exact solution of open bosonic string field theory which can be used to describe any time-independent open string background. The solution generalizes an earlier construction of Kiermaier, Okawa, and Soler, and assumes the existence of boundary condition changing operators with nonsingular OPEs and vanishing conformal dimension. Our main observation is that boundary condition changing operators of this kind can describe nearly any open string background provided the background shift is accompanied by a timelike Wilson line of sufficient strength. As an application we analyze the tachyon lump describing the formation of a D(p−1)-brane in the string field theory of a Dp-brane, for generic compactification radius. This not only provides a proof of Sen’s second conjecture, but also gives explicit examples of higher energy solutions, confirming analytically that string field theory can “reverse” the direction of the worldsheet RG flow. We also find multiple D-brane solutions, demonstrating that string field theory can add Chan-Paton factors and change the rank of the gauge group. Finally, we show how the solution provides a remarkably simple and nonperturbative proof of the background independence of open bosonic string field theory.

We study generic properties of string theory effective actions obtained by classically integrating out massive excitations from string field theories based on cyclic homotopy algebras of A_∞ or L_∞ type. We construct observables in the UV theory and we discuss their fate after integration-out. Furthermore, we discuss how to compose two subsequent integrations of degrees of freedom (horizontal composition) and how to integrate out degrees of freedom after deforming the UV theory with a new consistent interaction (vertical decomposition). We then apply our general results to the open bosonic string using Witten’s open string field theory. There we show how the horizontal composition can be used to systematically integrate out the Nakanishi-Lautrup field from the set of massless excitations, ending with a non-abelian A_∞-gauge theory for just the open string gluon. Moreover we show how the vertical decomposition can be used to construct effective open-closed couplings by deforming Witten OSFT with a tadpole given by the Ellwood invariant. Also, we discuss how the effective theory controls the possibility of removing the tadpole in the microscopic theory, giving a new framework for studying D-brane deformations induced by changes in the closed string background.