Inspired by Aldous' conjecture for the spectral gap of the interchange process and its recent resolution by Caputo, Liggett, and Richthammer, we define an associated order $\prec$ on the irreducible representations of $S_n$. Aldous' conjecture is equivalent to certain representations being comparable in this order, and hence determining the ``Aldous order'' completely is a generalized question. We show a few additional entries for this order.

Let $R_n(\alpha)$ be the $n!\times n!$ matrix whose matrix elements $[R_n(\alpha)]_{\sigma\rho}$, with $\sigma$ and $\rho$ in the symmetric group $\sn$, are $\alpha^{\ell(\sigma\rho^{-1})}$ with $0<\alpha<1$, where $\ell(\pi)$ denotes the number of cycles in $\pi\in \sn$. We give the spectrum of $R_n$ and show that the ratio of the largest eigenvalue $\lambda_0$ to the second largest one (in absolute value) increases as a positive power of $n$ as $n\rightarrow \infty$.