Noncommutativity in open string: new results in a gauge-independent analysis

Noncommutativity in an open string moving in a background Neveu-Schwarz field is investigated in a gauge-independent Hamiltonian approach, leading to new results. The noncommutativity is shown to be a direct consequence of the nontrivial boundary conditions, which, contrary to several approaches, are not treated as constraints. We find that the noncommutativity persists for all string points. In the conformal gauge our results reduce to the usual noncommutativity at the boundaries only. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.