The combinatorial structure of ultrafilters on the natural numbers has been investigated intensively for many decades, and a lot is known about the order structure of such ultrafilters (under either the Tukey or the Rudin-Keisler ordering), about special classes of ultrafilters (like P-points),or about cardinal invariants related to ultrafilters (like the ultrafilter number). Yet, very little has been done so far concerning combinatorial aspects of ultrafilters on general Boolean algebras, and the purpose of this talk will be to present some basic results in this direction.

Focus will be put on the Tukey ordering, on (non)existence of non-Tukey-maximal ultrafilters, on ultrafilter numbers, and on an analogue of the Rudin-Keisler ordering in the context of complete Boolean algebras. We will in particular deal with Cohen and random algebras. This is joint work with Francesco Parente.