  New solutions to the abelian U(1) Higgs model, corresponding to vortices of
integer and half-integer winding number bound onto the edges of domain walls
and possibly surrounded by annular current flows, are described, based on a
fine-grained analysis of the topology of such configurations in spacetime. The
existence of these states, which saturate BPS bounds in specific limits and are
quite reminiscent of D-branes and membranes in general, could have interesting
and some important consequences in a wide range of physical contexts. For
instance, they raise the possibility that for some regimes of couplings the
usual vortex of unit winding number would split into two vortices each of
one-half winding number bound by a domain wall. A similar approach may also be
relevant to other known topological states of field theory.
