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We study combinatorial properties of the partial order (Dense(ℚ),⊆). To do that we introduce cardinal invariants ${}_{\mathbb{Q}}$, ${}_{\mathbb{Q}}$, ${}_{\mathbb{Q}}$, ${}_{\mathbb{Q}}$, ${}_{\mathbb{Q}}$, ${}_{\mathbb{Q}}$ describing properties of Dense(ℚ). These invariants satisfy ${}_{\mathbb{Q}}$ ≤ ℚ ≤ ℚ ≤ ℚ ≤ ℚ ≤ ℚ$.WecomparethemwiththeiranaloguesinthewellstudiedBooleanalgebra\left(\omega \right)/fin.Weshowthat$ℚ = p$,$ℚ = t$and$ℚ = i$,whereas$ℚ > h$and$ℚ > r$arebothshowntoberelativelyconsistentwithZFC.Wealsoinvestigatecombinatoricsoftheidealnwdofnowheredensesubsetsof,\mathbb{Q}.Inparticular,weshowthat$non(M)=min||: ⊆ Dense(R) ∧ (∀I ∈ nwd(R))(∃D ∈ )(I ∩ D = ∅) and cof(M) = min||: ⊆ Dense(ℚ) ∧ (∀I ∈ nwd)(∃D ∈ )(I ∩ = ∅). We use these facts to show that cof(M) ≤ i, which improves a result of S. Shelah.

We answer several questions of D. Monk by showing that every maximal family of pairwise incomparable elements of 𝒫(ω)/fin has size continuum, while it is consistent with the negation of the Continuum Hypothesis that there are maximal subtrees of both 𝒫(ω) and 𝒫(ω)/fin of size ω₁.

Given a Boolean algebra 𝔹 and an embedding e:𝔹 → 𝓟(ℕ)/fin we consider the possibility of extending each or some automorphism of 𝔹 to the whole 𝓟(ℕ)/fin. Among other things, we show, assuming CH, that for a wide class of Boolean algebras there are embeddings for which no non-trivial automorphism can be extended.