On soluble subgroups of sporadic groups (Q6103906)

Let \(G\) be a finite transitive permutation group on a set \(\Omega\) with point stabiliser \(H\). A subset of \(\Omega\) is a base for \(G\) if its pointwise stabiliser in \(G\) is trivial; the minimal size \(b(G, H)\) of a base is called the base size of \(G\). Let \(G\) be an almost simple sporadic group and let \(H\) be a soluble subgroup of \(G\). In this paper, the author proves that \(H \cap H^{x} \cap H^{y} = 1\) for some elements \(x,y \in G\), which is equivalent to the bound \(b(G, H) \leq 3\) with respect to the base size for the natural action of \(G\) on the set of cosets of \(H\). This bound is best possible. This result establishes a strong form of a more general conjecture of \textit{E. P. Vdovin} [J. Algebra Appl. 11, No. 1, Article ID 1250015, 14 p. (2012; Zbl 1251.20003)] on the intersection of conjugate soluble subgroups of finite groups.