Molecular simulations of a nematic liquid crystal confined in cylinder geometry with homeotropic anchoring have been carried out. The core structure of a disclination line defect of strength +1 has been examined, and comparison made with various theoretical treatments, which are presented in a unified way. It is found that excellent fits to the cylindrically-symmetrized order tensor profiles may be obtained with appropriate parameter choices; notwithstanding this, on the timescales of the simulation, the cylindrical symmetry of the core is broken and two defects of strength +1/2 may be resolved.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0203079,
title = {Molecular simulation and theory of a liquid crystalline disclination core},
author = {D. Andrienko and M. P. Allen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0203079},
year = {2016}
}