High-velocity features in Type Ia supernovae from a compact circumstellar shell

High-velocity features (HVF) of Ca prior to B-band maximum light are a ubiquitous property of Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia), but the origin of this high-velocity material is unknown. It may result from ejection of material during the explosion, detonation of material on the surface prior to the supernova or interaction with a companion or material in the nearby environment. Here, we introduce the methods we use to simulate the interaction of SN Ia ejecta with a shell of material surrounding the progenitor at a distance of less than 1R(circle dot). Assuming free expansion, constant ion state and excitation temperature, we generate synthetic spectra from the data showing the effect of equation of state, explosion model, and the width, initial density profile and mass of the shell on the appearance and temporal evolution of the Ca II near-infrared triplet (CaNIR). The Ca abundance of the shell is taken to be a free parameter. We compare the evolution of the pseudo-equivalent width (pEW) of the CaNIR feature resulting from these models to observational results from Silverman et al. We find that the mass of the shell must be less than 0.012 +/- 0.004 M-circle dot. We discuss potential ambiguities in observational methods of determining the pEW of the HVF.