Radial fluctuations and nonisotropic disclinations in nematic liquid crystals

The aim of this paper is to study the role of the radial symmetry in the pr ofile of anisotropic disclinations of the nematic liquid crystals. It will be shown that when radial fluctuations are allowed a macroscopic term appea rs. This term preserves the known topology of these disclinations but chang es their angular structure and the distribution of elastic energy. Furtherm ore, it is shown that one of the isotropiclike disclinations predicted by t he usual approach is forbidden by the radial fluctuations.