Cartoon illustrating the observed conjugate flux deficit, Δ, as a result of flux imbalance between two colliding conjugate bipoles. (a) The case of a single bipole emerging in isolation from preexisting flux concentrations. As a result, the negative flux is in balance with the positive flux, yielding zero conjugate flux deficit. After the end of the emergence phase, the decay phase becomes apparent in the unsigned fluxes owing to cancellation of opposite-polarity fragments at the self-PIL. (b) The case of two emerging conjugate bipoles (N1 P1 and N2 P2, with white arrows showing the self-separation) composing a single AR, where collision occurs between the opposite-signed nonconjugated polarities (N1 and P2). After the collision onset (t_collision), an imbalance develops between the negative flux and the positive flux in each conjugate bipole (N1 flux is less than P1 flux, and inversely, P2 flux is less than N2 flux). (c) The imbalance is the nonzero conjugate flux deficit Δ for each conjugate bipole (orange curves), a result of flux cancellation at the collisional PIL. Note that the flux is always balanced for the quadrupolar AR as a whole (summing the deficits should yield zero).