We investigate the population of dwarf galaxies with stellar masses similar to the Large Magellanic Cloud ( LMC ) and M33 in the eagle galaxy formation simulation .
In the field , galaxies reside in haloes with stellar-to-halo mass ratios of 1.03 ^ { +0.50 } _ { -0.31 } \times 10 ^ { -2 } ( 68 % confidence level ) ; systems like the LMC , which have an SMC-mass satellite , reside in haloes about 1.3 times more massive , which suggests an LMC halo mass at infall , M _ { 200 } = 3.4 ^ { +1.8 } _ { -1.2 } \times 10 ^ { 11 } { ~ { } M _ { \odot } } ( 68 % confidence level ) .
The colour distribution of dwarfs is bimodal , with the red galaxies ( g - r > 0.6 ) being mostly satellites .
The fraction of red LMC-mass dwarfs is 15 % for centrals , and for satellites this fraction increases rapidly with host mass : from 10 % for satellites of Milky Way ( MW ) -mass haloes to nearly 90 % for satellites of groups and clusters .
The quenching timescale , defined as the time after infall when half of the satellites have acquired red colours , decreases with host mass from { > } 5 Gyrs for MW-mass hosts to 2.5 Gyrs for cluster mass hosts .
The satellites of MW-mass haloes have higher star formation rates and bluer colours than field galaxies .
This is due to enhanced star formation triggered by gas compression shortly after accretion .
Both the LMC and M33 have enhanced recent star formation that could be a manifestation of this process .
After infall into their MW-mass hosts , the g - r colours of LMC-mass dwarfs become bluer for the first 2 Gyrs , after which they rapidly redden .
LMC-mass dwarfs fell into their MW-mass hosts only relatively recently , with more than half having an infall time of less than 3.5 Gyrs .