The fractional systematic error on FPi or sigma_pp is given by the sum in quadrature of the two vectors:systot_excinc560_r.dat and sys_wei60.dat. This vectors are 60 bins from 0.35 to 0.95 GeV2. The error given in systot_excinc560_r.dat is fully correlated. The error given in sys_wei60.dat is 2x2 fully correlated starting from bin 2 to bin 58. As an example to evaluate its contribution to amu, you can use the following FORTRAN code: To open the cov matrix, just use the following FORTRAN code: open(UNIT=52,FILE= $'./systot_excinc560_r.dat', !bckg fully corr $ STATUS='OLD') open(UNIT=53,FILE= $'./sys_wei60.dat', !bckg 2x2 corr $ STATUS='OLD') DO I=1,60 read(52,409) dbg(i) read(53,409) dbg2(i) ENDDO 409 format(f10.5) close(52) close(53) dsy=0. dsy2=0. do i=1,60 qqi = 0.355+(i-1)*0.01 amu(i) = facto*0.01*spp(i)*kern(qqi) dsys(i) = amu(i)*dbg(i) !full corr dsy = dsy+dsys(i) !corr enddo dw2=(amu(1)*dbg2(1))**2 do i=2,58,2 j=i+1 qqi = 0.355+(i-1)*0.01 amu(i) = facto*0.01*spp(i)*kern(qqi) dbamu(i)=amu(i)*dbg2(i) dbamu(j)=amu(j)*dbg2(j) dw2=dw2+(dbamu(i)+dbamu(j))**2 print*,qqi,i,j,'dbamu(',i,')= ',dbamu(i), & 'dbamu(',j,')= ',dbamu(j),dbg2(i),dbg2(j) enddo dw2=dw2+(amu(60)*dbg2(60))**2 dsyt =sqrt(dsy**2+dw2) !corr+2x2corr Finally if you don't care about correlation you can use systot2_excinc560_rt.dat which is the sum in quadrature of the two above.