These vortices are topological defects carrying a center element as charge.

Grand unification theories predicted topological defects in space that would manifest as magnetic monopoles.

Vortices are an example of topological defect, and also occur in other situations.

Mathematically, dislocations are a type of topological defect, sometimes called a soliton.

Other types of topological defects in spacetime are domain walls, monopoles, and textures.

The dark soliton is also a type of topological defect, since flips between positive and negative values across the origin, corresponding to a phase shift.

The exotic matter or topological defects required for the creation of those environments have not been observed.

Certain grand unified theories predict topological defects to have formed in the early universe.

The homotopy theory is deeply related to the stability of topological defects.

However, certain field theories also predict cosmic strings arising from topological defects in the field configuration.