We provide a complete set of moves relating any two Lefschetz fibrations over the disc having as their total space the same four-dimensional 2-handlebody up to 2-equivalence. As a consequence, we also obtain moves relating diffeomorphic three-dimensional open books, providing a different approach to an analogous previous result by Harer.

We prove the existence of a finite set of moves sufficient to relate any two representations of the same 3-manifold as a 4-fold simple branched covering of S 3 . We also prove a stabilization result: after adding a fifth trivial sheet two local moves suffice. These results are analogous to results of Piergallini in degree 3 and can be viewed as a second step in a program to establish similar results for arbitrary degree coverings of S 3 .

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We derive a formula expanding the bracket with respect to a natural deformation parameter. The expansion is in terms of a two-variable polynomial algebra of diagram resolutions generated by basic operations involving the Goldman bracket. A functorial characterization of this algebra is given. Differentiability properties of the star product underlying the Kauffman bracket are discussed.