We compare the sets of homotopy classes of gradient and proper gradient vector fields in the plane. Namely, we show that gradient and proper gradient homotopy classi cations are essentially different. We provide a complete description of the sets of homotopy classes of gradient maps from R^n to R^n and proper gradient maps from R^2 to R^2 with the Brouwer degree greater or equal to zero.

We present a version of the equivariant gradient degree defined for equivariant gradient perturbations of an equivariant unbounded self-adjoint operator with purely discrete spectrum in Hilbert space. Two possible applications are discussed.