Exploring the spectroscopic diversity of Type Ia supernovae

The velocities and equivalent widths (EWs) of a set of absorption features are measured for a sample of 28 well-observed Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) covering a wide range of properties. The values of these quantities at maximum are obtained through interpolation/extrapolation and plotted against the decline rate, and so are various line ratios. The SNe are divided according to their velocity evolution into three classes defined in a previous work of Benetti et al.: low velocity gradient (LVG), high velocity gradient (HVG) and FAINT. It is found that all the LVG SNe have approximately uniform velocities at B maximum, while the FAINT SNe have values that decrease with increasing Delta m(15)(B) and the HVG SNe have a large spread. The EWs of the Fe-dominated features are approximately constant in all SNe, while those of intermediate mass element (IME) lines have larger values for intermediate decliners and smaller values for brighter and FAINT SNe. The HVG SNe have stronger Si II 6355-angstrom lines, with no correlation with Delta m(15)(B). It is also shown that the Si II 5972 angstrom EW and three EW ratios, including one analogous to the R(Si II) ratio introduced by Nugent et al., are good spectroscopic indicators of luminosity. The data suggest that all LVG SNe have approximately constant kinetic energy, since burning to IME extends to similar velocities. The FAINT SNe may have somewhat lower energies. The large velocities and EWs of the IME lines of HVG SNe appear correlated with each other, but are not correlated with the presence of high-velocity features in the Ca II infrared triplet in the earliest spectra for the SNe for which such data exist.