In this paper, we study the relationship of the Brouwer degree of a vector field with the dynamics of the induced flow. Analogous relations are studied for the index of a vector field. We obtain new forms of the Poincar é–Hopf theorem and of the Borsuk and Hirsch antipodal theorems. As an application, we calculate the Brouwer degree of the vector field of the Lorenz equations in isolating blocks of the Lorenz strange set.

We study the set $D(M,N)$ of all possible mapping degrees from $M$ to $N$ when $M$ and $N$ are quasitoric $4$ -manifolds. In some of the cases, we completely describe this set. Our results rely on Theorems proved by Duan and Wang and the sets of integers obtained are interesting from the number theoretical point of view, for example those representable as the sum of two squares $D(\mathbb{C}P^{2}\sharp \mathbb{C}P^{2},\mathbb{C}P^{2})$ or the sum of three squares $D(\mathbb{C}P^{2}\sharp \mathbb{C}P^{2}\sharp \mathbb{C}P^{2},\mathbb{C}P^{2})$ . In addition to the general results about the mapping degrees between quasitoric 4-manifolds, we establish connections between Duan and Wang’s approach, quadratic forms, number theory and lattices.

Let N be a closed s-Hopfian n-manifold with residually finite, torsion free π1 (N) and finite H1(N). Suppose that either πk(N) is finitely generated for all k ≥ 2, or πk(N) ≅ 0 for 1 < k < n – 1, or n ≤ 4. We show that if N fails to be a co-dimension 2 fibrator, then N cyclically covers itself, up to homotopy type.

An elementary proof is given of a theorem of Castro and Lazer that the degree of the gradient of a coercive functional on a large ball of Rn is one.