A new order on integer partitions

Abstract

Considering Schur positivity of differences of plethysms of homogeneous symmetric functions, we introduce a new relation on integer partitions. This relation is conjectured to be a partial order, with its restriction to one part partitions equivalent to the classical Foulkes conjecture. We establish some of the properties of this relation via the construction of explicit inclusion of modules whose characters correspond to the plethysms considered. We also prove some stability properties for the number of irreducible occurring in these modules as $n$ grows.