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On the order of countable graphs. (English) Zbl 1030.03028
Summary: A set of graphs is said to be independent if there is no homomorphism between distinct graphs from the set. We consider the existence problems related to the independent sets of countable graphs. While the maximal size of an independent set of countable graphs is $$2^\omega$$ the On Line problem of extending an independent set to a larger independent set is much harder. We prove here that singletons can be extended (“partnership theorem”). While this is the best possible in general, we give structural conditions which guarantee independent extensions of larger independent sets.
This is related to universal graphs, rigid graphs (where we solve a problem posed by the first author and V. Rödl [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 46, 133-141 (1989; Zbl 0677.05031)] and to the density problem for countable graphs.

##### MSC:
 03C50 Models with special properties (saturated, rigid, etc.) 05C60 Isomorphism problems in graph theory (reconstruction conjecture, etc.) and homomorphisms (subgraph embedding, etc.) 05C15 Coloring of graphs and hypergraphs 03C98 Applications of model theory 06A07 Combinatorics of partially ordered sets 03C64 Model theory of ordered structures; o-minimality
##### Keywords:
Density; Partially ordered sets; Rigid graphs; Universal graphs
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##### References:
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