Quantum effects in collisions of ultracold atoms with walls and nanostructures

Collisions of ultracold atoms with walls and nanostructures are, at sufficiently low energy, dominantly influenced by quantum effects, e.g. quantum reflection in the nonclassical region of an attractive atom-surface potential and dominance of low partial waves in the elastic scattering by nanospheres. We discuss possibilities of exploiting such effects to probe atom-surface potentials or to trap atoms without the help of auxiliary fields