Generic Compacta from Relations between Finite Graphs: Theory Building and Examples

Abstract

In recent work, the authors developed a simple method of constructing topological spaces from certain well-behaved partially ordered sets -- those coming from sequences of relations between finite sets. This method associates a given poset with its spectrum, which is a compact T_1 topological space. In this paper, we focus on the case where such finite sets have a graph structure and the relations belong to a given graph category. We relate topological properties of the spectrum to combinatorial properties of the graph categories involved. We then utilise this to exhibit elementary combinatorial constructions of well-known continua as Fraïssé limits of finite graphs in categories with relational morphisms.

revised version, 55 pages