In this thesis, I apply methods from the representation theory of finite dimensional algebras to the study of versal and universal deformation rings. The main idea is that more sophisticated results from representation theory can be used to arrive at a deeper understanding of deformation rings. Such rings arise naturally in a variety of problems in number theory and group representation theory.;This thesis has two parts. In the first part, Λ is an arbitrary finite dimensional algebra over a field k. If V is a finitely generated Λ-module, I prove that V has a versal deformation ring R(Λ, V). Moreover, if Λ is self-injective and the stable endomorphism ring of V is isomorphic to k, then R(Λ, V) is universal. If additionally Λ is a Frobenius algebra and O denotes the syzygy operator over Λ, I show that the universal deformation rings of V and O(V) are isomorphic. In the second part, I analyze a particular finite dimensional Frobenius algebra Λ over an algebraically closed field k for which all the finitely generated indecomposable modules can be described combinatorially by using certain words in Λ. I use this description to visualize the indecomposable Λ-modules in the stable Auslander-Reiten quiver of Λ and determine all the components of this stable Auslander-Reiten quiver which contain Λ-modules whose endomorphism ring is isomorphic to k. Finally I determine the universal deformation rings of all the modules in these components whose stable endomorphism ring is isomorphic to k.
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