  We discuss aspects of antihydrogen studies, that relate to particle physics
ideas and techniques, within the context of the ALPHA experiment at CERN's
Antiproton Decelerator facility. We review the fundamental physics motivations
for antihydrogen studies, and their potential physics reach. We argue that
initial spectroscopy measurements, once antihydrogen is trapped, could provide
competitive tests of CPT, possibly probing physics at the Planck Scale. We
discuss some of the particle detection techniques used in ALPHA. Preliminary
results from commissioning studies of a partial system of the ALPHA Si vertex
detector are presented, the results of which highlight the power of
annihilation vertex detection capability in antihydrogen studies.
