  We prove that the degree-one vortex solution is the unique minimizer for the
Ginzburg--Landau functional for gradient fields (that is, the Aviles--Giga
model) in the unit ball $B^N$ in dimension $N \geq 4$ and with respect to its
boundary value. A similar result is also proved for $\mathbb{S}^N$-valued maps
in the theory of micromagnetics. Two methods are presented. The first method is
an extension of the analogous technique previously used to treat the
unconstrained Ginzburg--Landau functional in dimension $N \geq 7$. The second
method uses a symmetrization procedure for gradient fields such that the
$L^2$-norm is invariant while the $L^p$-norm, $2 < p < \infty$, and the
$H^1$-norm are lowered.
