Fig. 3: Bidimensional oxygen–oxygen/oxygen–proton distributions.

Difference between bidimensional oxygen–oxygen/oxygen–proton distributions ρ2D obtained by QMC-driven LD simulations for classical (left panels) and quantum (right panels) particles, computed at different temperatures. The bidimensional distribution computed at 250 K is taken as reference. Positive (negative) regions are in red (blue) colour. The black filled circles correspond to the zero-temperature equilibrium geometries of the H13O\({}_{6}^{+}\) ion at a fixed \({{{{{{{{\rm{d}}}}}}}}}_{{{{\mbox{O}}}}_{1}{{{\mbox{O}}}}_{2}}\) distance. The coloured background highlights the three different regimes explained in the paper: the short Zundel (grey), the elongated Zundel (yellow), and the distorted Eigen (green) species. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.