Meaning of W_sigma when performig a fit with constraints

Hello,
I have a problem in understanding how the W_sigma in the fitting functions is calculated. I have to fit a data set with two gaussians and I create therefore with FuncFit an appropriate function to fit them which is the sum of the two gaussians.
The only constrain which I want to impose is that the X02 (central position of the second gaussian) has a fixed distance with respect to the X01 (central position of the firts gaussian) and let's say the distance is 3.
I do this by using a constrain like this X01+3 smaller then X02 smaller then X01+3. The fitting seems working if I look at the X01 and X02 results, but I cannot understand the W-sigma values associated with this variables. I would expect them to be the same because X02 is not independent from X01, but this is not the case. What is the algoritm doing if i choose such a constrain? X02 in my intention should at each fitting step be at a fixed distance with x01, but since I get out an error on it this suggests that is varying indipendently. Is that possible?

Martina
The computation of the sigmas doesn't know about constraints. It simply looks at the shape of the chi-square surface around the solution point.

A better approach to what you want to do would be to re-write your fitting function to use x0 as the location coefficient for the first Gaussian, and (x0+3) as the location of the second Gaussian. If the offset needs to be settable, you can make the offset a fit coefficient and then hold the value of the offset.

John Weeks
WaveMetrics, Inc.
support@wavemetrics.com