The two teams had been working independent from each other, meaning they did not discuss their results with each other, providing additional certainty that any common finding was genuine validation of a particle. This level of evidence, confirmed independently by two separate teams and experiments, meets the formal level of proof required to announce a confirmed discovery of a new particle. CERN has been cautious, and stated only that the new particle is "consistent with" the Higgs boson, but scientists have not positively identified it as being the Higgs boson, pending further data collection and analysis.