Four-lepton production from photon-induced reactions in $pp$ collisions at the LHC

The cross sections for the reaction $\gamma \gamma \to 4\mathrm{\ell }$ in proton–proton collisions are calculated at the LHC energies. We show that the purely electroweak process $\gamma \gamma \to 4\mathrm{\ell }$ can be studied at the LHC and can constitute a background to other processes with $4\mathrm{\ell }$ or $2\mathrm{\ell }$ final states.