There are two kinds of solitons, one of which is stablized by a topological defect (the wave variable goes to -1 to the left and +1 to the right) and the other kind is stablized by non-linear dispersion (wave energy that gets ahead or behind the main wave never gets away from the wave)<p>Folkds get trally confused because these are totally different phenomena. (e.g. the first may have exact solutions, the other doesn't)