Topological defects, the unavoidable result of many symmetry-breaking phase transitions, can reveal the properties of many condensed matter systems, may be responsible for seeding the density perturbations that developed into galaxies, and are of interest to mathematicians as non-trivial solutions o

Topological defects have recently become of great interest in condensed matter physics, particle physics and cosmology. They are the unavoidable remnants of many symmetry breaking phase transitions. Topological defects can play an important role in describing the properties of many condensed matter systems (e.g. superfluids and superconduc- tors); they can catalyze many unusual effects in particle physics models and they may be responsible for seeding the density perturbations in the early Universe which de- velop into galaxies and the large-scale structure of the Universe. Topological...