We investigate the class of bipartite Borel graphs organized by the order of Borel homomorphism. We show that this class is unbounded by finding a jump operator for Borel graphs analogous to a jump operator of Louveau for Borel equivalence relations. The proof relies on a nonseparation result for iterated Fréchet ideals and filters due to Debs and Saint Raymond. We give a new proof of this fact using effective descriptive set theory. We also investigate an analogue of the Friedman-Stanley jump for Borel graphs. This analogue does not yield a jump operator for bipartite Borel graphs. However, we use it to answer a question of Kechris and Marks by showing that there is a Borel graph with no Borel homomorphism to a locally countable Borel graph, but each of whose connected components has a countable Borel coloring.

The core of a graph Γ is the smallest graph Δ that is homomorphically equivalent to Γ (that is, there exist homomorphisms in both directions). The core of Γ is unique up to isomorphism and is an induced subgraph of Γ. We give a construction in some sense dual to the core. The hull of a graph Γ is a graph containing Γ as a spanning subgraph, admitting all the endomorphisms of Γ, and having as core a complete graph of the same order as the core of Γ. This construction is related to the notion of a synchronizing permutation group, which arises in semigroup theory; we provide some more insight by characterizing these permutation groups in terms of graphs. It is known that the core of a vertex-transitive graph is vertex-transitive. In some cases we can make stronger statements: for example, if Γ is a non-edge-transitive graph, we show that either the core of Γ is complete, or Γ is its own core. Rank-three graphs are non-edge-transitive. We examine some families of these to decide which of the two alternatives for the core actually holds. We will see that this question is very difficult, being equivalent in some cases to unsolved questions in finite geometry (for example, about spreads, ovoids and partitions into ovoids in polar spaces).

We give a unified treatment of several fixed-point type theorems by using the concept of dismantlability, extended from ordered sets to arbitrary graphs. For a graph G and a vertex x of G we let NG(X) denote the set of neighbours of x in G. We say that x is a subdominant vertex of G if there is a vertex y of G, distinct from x, such that NG(x)∪{x} ⊆ NG(y)∪{y}. If G has n vertices we say that G is dismantlable if the vertices of G can be listed as x1, x2, ..., xi,..., xn such that, for all i = 1,2,..., n— 1, xi is a subdominant vertex of the graph Gi = G — {xj : j < i}