We study countable embedding-universal and homomorphism-universal structures
and unify results related to both of these notions. We show that many universal
and ultrahomogeneous structures allow a concise description (called here a
finite presentation). Extending classical work of Rado (for the random graph),
we find a finite presentation for each of the following classes: homogeneous
undirected graphs, homogeneous tournaments and homogeneous partially ordered
sets. We also give a finite presentation of the rational Urysohn metric space
and some homogeneous directed graphs.
We survey well known structures that are finitely presented. We focus on
structures endowed with natural partial orders and prove their universality.
These partial orders include partial orders on sets of words, partial orders
formed by geometric objects, grammars, polynomials and homomorphism orders for
various combinatorial objects.
We give a new combinatorial proof of the existence of embedding-universal
objects for homomorphism-defined classes of structures. This relates countable
embedding-universal structures to homomorphism dualities (finite
homomorphism-universal structures) and Urysohn metric spaces. Our explicit
construction also allows us to show several properties of these structures.Comment: PhD thesis, unofficial version (missing apple font
