Abstract. Maximal green sequences are particular sequences of quiver mutations appearing in the context of quantum dilogarithm identities and supersymmetric gauge theory.Interpreting maximal green sequences as paths in various natural posets arising in representation theory, we prove the finiteness of the number of maximal green sequences for cluster finite quivers, affine quivers and acyclic quivers with at most three vertices. We also give results concerning the possible numbers and lengths of these maximal green sequences.

Abstract. We introduce a category of cluster algebras with fixed initial seeds. This category has countable coproducts, which can be constructed combinatorially, but no products. We characterise isomorphisms and monomorphisms in this category and provide combinatorial methods for constructing special classes of monomorphisms and epimorphisms. In the case of cluster algebras from surfaces, we describe interactions between this category and the geometry of the surfaces.

a b s t r a c tLet Q be an acyclic quiver. We introduce the notion of generic variables for the coefficientfree acyclic cluster algebra A(Q). We prove that the set G(Q) of generic variables contains naturally the set M(Q) of cluster monomials in A(Q) and that these two sets coincide if and only if Q is a Dynkin quiver. We establish multiplicative properties of these generic variables analogous to multiplicative properties of Lusztig's dual semicanonical basis. This allows to compute explicitly the generic variables when Q is a quiver of affine type. When Q is the Kronecker quiver, the set G(Q) is a Z-basis of A(Q) and this basis is compared to Sherman-Zelevinsky and Caldero-Zelevinsky bases.