On Free Knots and Links

Both classical and virtual knots arise as formal Gauss diagrams modulo some abstract moves corresponding to Reidemeister moves. If we forget about both over/under crossings structure and writhe numbers of knots modulo the same Reidemeister moves, we get a dramatic simplification of virtual knots, which kills all classical knots. However, many virtual knots survive after this simplification. We construct invariants of these objects and present their applications to minimality problems of virtual knots as well as some questions related to graph-links. One can easily generalize these results for the orientable case and apply them for solving non-invertibility problems. The main idea behind these invariants is some geometrical construction which reduces the general equivalence to the equivalence only modulo Reidemeister - 2 move.