Figure 5.

Epitope conservation controls the size and duration of antigen population bottleneck in rebound phase

Stronger epitope conservation (larger n_c) yields a shallower yet longer-lasting Ag population bottleneck. Bottleneck starts when Ag population first drops to below 10% capacity and ends when it recovers to above this level. Bottleneck size is defined by the time-averaged Ag count during the bottleneck. 100 simulations (scatters) are performed for each n_c value; corresponding histograms are shown along the sides. Initial Ag diversity σ_A=2.