Both experiments found excesses in the 130-150 GeV mass region. But the excesses did not have enough statistical significance to count as evidence of the Higgs.
Scientists measure statistical significance in units called sigma, written as the Greek letter σ. These high-energy experiments usually require 3σ level of confidence, about 99.7 percent certainty, to claim they’ve seen evidence of something. They need 5σ to claim a discovery. The ATLAS experiment reported excesses at confidence levels between 2 and 2.8σ, and the CMS experiment found similar excesses at close to 3σ.
Still, there's a very long way to go (and more data collection and analysis) before one can actually claim discovery. Unlike pseudosciences where even a weak correlation seems to be sufficient to claim that a phenomenon exists, in high energy physics, not only do you need a high confidence level that your result isn't simply due to chance, but you also need another independent detector, measuring things differently, to agree with your result! The fact that both ATLAS and CMS are getting almost the identical result is a very good start. And it is only a start.
Interestingly enough, the energy range where this is detected is also accessible at the Tevatron. I wonder if CDF and DZero might zero in (no pun intended) in this range and see what their data looks like with various background subtraction schemes.
Zz.
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