Because of the large neutron excess of ^ { 22 } Ne , this isotope rapidly sediments in the interior of the white dwarfs .
This process releases an additional amount of energy , thus delaying the cooling times of the white dwarf .
This influences the ages of different stellar populations derived using white dwarf cosmochronology .
Furthermore , the overabundance of ^ { 22 } Ne in the inner regions of the star , modifies the Brunt-Väisälä frequency , thus altering the pulsational properties of these stars .
In this work , we discuss the impact of ^ { 22 } Ne sedimentation in white dwarfs resulting from Solar metallicity progenitors ( Z = 0.02 ) .
We performed evolutionary calculations of white dwarfs of masses 0.528 , 0.576 , 0.657 and 0.833 M _ { \sun } , derived from full evolutionary computations of their progenitor stars , starting at the Zero Age Main Sequence all the way through central hydrogen and helium burning , thermally-pulsing AGB and post-AGB phases .
Our computations show that at low luminosities ( \log ( L / L _ { \sun } ) \lesssim - 4.25 ) , ^ { 22 } Ne sedimentation delays the cooling of white dwarfs with Solar metallicity progenitors by about 1 Gyr .
Additionally , we studied the consequences of ^ { 22 } Ne sedimentation on the pulsational properties of ZZ Ceti white dwarfs .
We find that ^ { 22 } Ne sedimentation induces differences in the periods of these stars larger than the present observational uncertainties , particularly in more massive white dwarfs .