Context. An accurate assessment of white dwarf cooling times is paramount so that white dwarf cosmochronology of Galactic populations can be put on more solid grounds. This issue is particularly relevant in view of the enhanced observational capabilities provided by the next generation of extremely large telescopes, that will offer more avenues to use white dwarfs as probes of Galactic evolution and test-beds of fundamental physics. Aims. We estimate for the first time the consistency of results obtained from independent evolutionary codes for white dwarf models with fixed mass and chemical stratification, when the same input physics is employed in the calculations. Methods. We compute and compare cooling times obtained from two independent and widely used stellar evolution codes, BaSTI and LPCODE evolutionary codes, using exactly the same input physics for 0.55 M-circle dot white dwarf models with both pure carbon and uniform carbon-oxygen (50/50 mass fractions) cores, and pure hydrogen layers with mass fraction q(H) = 10(-4) M-WD on top of pure helium buffers of mass q(He) = 10(-2) M-WD. Results. Using the same radiative and conductive opacities, photospheric boundary conditions, neutrino energy loss rates, and equation of state, cooling times from the two codes agree within similar to 2% at all luminosities, except when log(L/L-circle dot) > -1.5 where differences up to similar to 8% do appear, because of the different thermal structures of the first white dwarf converged models at the beginning of the cooling sequence. This agreement is true for both pure carbon and uniform carbon-oxygen stratification core models, and also when the release of latent heat and carbon-oxygen phase separation are considered. We have also determined quantitatively and explained the effect of varying equation of state, low-temperature radiative opacities, and electron conduction opacities in our calculations. ..

Peer Reviewed