NLO QCD CORRECTIONS TO THE PRODUCTION OF HEAVY CHARGED LEPTONS BY GLUON FUSION AT THE LHC.

The search for heavy charged leptons predicted by generalizations of the standard model is an objective of the experiments at future colliders, in particular at the LHC. We compute the Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) QCD virtual corrections to the production of pairs of heavy charged leptons by gluon fusion. The radiative corrections increase the production rate by about 30% and reduce its dependence on the renormalization and the factorization scales. The effect of a fourth family of quarks on the production cross-section is briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]