Noncommutative Geometry and Gauge Theories on Discrete Groups

We build and investigate a pure gauge theory on arbitrary discrete groups. A systematic approach to the construction of the differential calculus is presented. We discuss the metric properties of the models and introduce the action functionals for unitary gauge theories. A detailed analysis of two simple models based on $\z_2$ and $\z_3$ follows. Finally we study the method of combining the discrete and continuous geometry.