Noncommutative geometry in M-theory and conformal field theory

In the first part of the thesis I will investigate in the Matrix theory framework, the subgroup of dualities of the Discrete Light Cone Quantization of M-theory compactified on tori, which corresponds to T-duality in the auxiliary Type II string theory. After a review of matrix theory compactification leading to noncommutative supersymmetric Yang-Mills gauge theory, I will present solutions for the fundamental and adjoint sections on a two-dimensional twisted quantum torus and generalize to three-dimensional twisted quantum tori. After showing how M-theory T-duality is realized in supersymmetric Yang-Mills gauge theories on dual noncommutative tori I will relate this to the mathematical concept of Morita equivalence of C*-algebras. As a further generalization, I consider arbitrary Ramond-Ramond backgrounds. I will also discuss the spectrum of the toroidally compactified Matrix theory corresponding to quantized electric fluxes on two and three tori.;In the second part of the thesis I will present an application to conformal field theory involving quantum groups, another important example of a noncommutative space. First, I will give an introduction to Poisson-Lie groups and arrive at quantum groups using the Feynman path integral. I will quantize the symplectic leaves of the Poisson-Lie group SU(2)*. In this way we obtain the unitary representations of Uqsu 2 . I discuss the *-structure of SU(2)* and give a detailed description of its leaves using various parametrizations. Then, I will introduce a new reality structure on the Heisenberg double of Funq( SL(N, C)) for q phase, which can be interpreted as the quantum phase space of a particle on the q-deformed mass-hyperboloid. I also present evidence that the above real form describes zero modes of certain non-compact WZNW-models.