  We study how the order of N independent random walks in one dimension evolves
with time. Our focus is statistical properties of the inversion number m,
defined as the number of pairs that are out of sort with respect to the initial
configuration. In the steady-state, the distribution of the inversion number is
Gaussian with the average <m>~N^2/4 and the standard deviation sigma N^{3/2}/6.
The survival probability, S_m(t), which measures the likelihood that the
inversion number remains below m until time t, decays algebraically in the
long-time limit, S_m t^{-beta_m}. Interestingly, there is a spectrum of
N(N-1)/2 distinct exponents beta_m(N). We also find that the kinetics of
first-passage in a circular cone provides a good approximation for these
exponents. When N is large, the first-passage exponents are a universal
function of a single scaling variable, beta_m(N)--> beta(z) with
z=(m-<m>)/sigma. In the cone approximation, the scaling function is a root of a
transcendental equation involving the parabolic cylinder equation, D_{2
beta}(-z)=0, and surprisingly, numerical simulations show this prediction to be
exact.
