The original motivation of this study comes from the following questions that were mentioned to one ofus by H. Matano. Let 2 2 G= B = {x=(X1lX2) E 2 ; x~ + x~ = Ixl < 1}. 1 Consider the Ginzburg-Landau functional 2 2 (1) E~(u) = ~ LIVul + 4~2 L(lu1 _1)2 which is defined for maps u E H1(G;C) also identified with Hl(G;R2). Fix the boundary condition 9(X) =X on 8G and set H; = {u E H1(G;C); u = 9 on 8G}. It is easy to see that (2) is achieved by some...