Fra\"iss\'e structures and a conjecture of Furstenberg

Abstract

We study problems concerning the Samuel compactification of the automorphism group of a countable first-order structure. A key motivating question is a problem of Furstenberg and a counter-conjecture by Pestov regarding the difference between $S(G)$, the Samuel compactification, and $E(M(G))$, the enveloping semigroup of the universal minimal flow. We resolve Furstenberg's problem for several automorphism groups and give a detailed study in the case of $G = S_\infty$, leading us to define and investigate several new types of ultrafilter on a countable set.