Topological defects are irregularities or disruptions that occur in a medium where the spatial arrangement of the constituents is defined by a specific order parameter. These defects arise in various fields of physics, particularly in the study of condensed matter systems, cosmology, and field theory. They reflect a mismatch between the local symmetry of the system and the global properties of the medium.
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A topological defect is a localized obstruction to extending an ordered field smoothly and nonvanishingly through space. Its charge is determined by the homotopy class of the order parameter around the defect.