THE SILICON AND CALCIUM HIGH-VELOCITY FEATURES IN TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE FROM EARLY TO MAXIMUM PHASES

The high-velocity features (HVFs) in optical spectra of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are examined with a large sample including very early-time spectra (e.g., t < -7 days). Multiple Gaussian fits are applied to examine the HVFs and their evolutions, using constraints on expansion velocities for the same species (i.e., Si II 5972 and Si II 6355). We find that strong HVFs tend to appear in SNe Ia with smaller decline rates (e.g., Delta m(15)(B) less than or similar to 1.4 mag), clarifying that the finding by Childress et al. for the Ca-HVFs in near-maximum-light spectra applies both to the SiHVFs and Ca-HVFs in the earlier phase. The Si-HVFs seem to be more common in rapidly expanding SNe Ia, which is different from the earlier result that Ca-HVFs are associated with SNe Ia that have slower Si II 6355 velocities at maximum light (i.e., V-max(Si)). Moreover, SNe Ia with both stronger HVFs at early phases and larger V-max(Si) are found to have noticeably redder B - V colors and to occur preferentially in the inner regions of their host galaxies, while those with stronger HVFs but smaller V-max(Si) show opposite tendencies, suggesting that these two subclasses have different explosion environments and their HVFs may have different origins. We further examine the relationships between the absorption features of Si II 6355 and Ca II IR lines, and find that their photospheric components are well correlated in velocity and strength but that the corresponding HVFs show larger scatter. These results cannot be explained with ionization and/or thermal processes alone, and different mechanisms are required for the creation of HVF-forming regions in SNe Ia.