Domain Walls and Vortices with Non-Symmetric Core

We review recent work on a new class of topological defects which possess a nonsymmetric core. They arise in scalar field theories with global symmetries, U(1) for domain walls and SU(2) for vortices, which are explicitly broken to $Z_2$ and U(1) respectively. Both of the latter symmetries are spontaneously broken. For a particular range of parameters both types of defect solutions are shown to become unstable and decay to the well known stable walls and vortices with symmetric cores.