Some computations of partition functions and tachyon potentials in background independent off-shell string theory

We discuss what information can be safely extracted from background indepen dent off-shell string theory. The major obstacle in doing so is that renorm alization conditions of the underlying world-sheet theories are not exactly known. To get some insight, we first consider the tachyon and gauge field backgrounds and carry out computations in different renormalization schemes for both, bosonic string and superstring. Next, we use a principle of univ ersality (renormalization scheme independence) to somehow compensate the mi ssing of the renormalization conditions and get information we are looking far. It turns out that some asymptotics which are responsible for the poten tials only obey the principle of universality. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.