Non-Gaussian eccentricity fluctuations

International audienceWe study the fluctuations of the anisotropy of the energy density profile created in a high-energy collision at the LHC. We show that the anisotropy in harmonic n has generic non-Gaussian fluctuations. We argue that these non-Gaussianities have a universal character for small systems such as p+Pb collisions, but not for large systems such as Pb+Pb collisions where they depend on the underlying non-Gaussian statistics of the initial density profile. We generalize expressions for the eccentricity cumulants ɛ2{4} and ɛ3{4} previously obtained within the independent-source model to a general fluctuating initial density profile