Mechanism of enantiomer-selective adsorption on magnetized surfaces
In plain words
If mirror-image molecules really stick differently to a magnet depending on its direction, some interaction between the molecule's handedness and the electron spins in the magnet must cause it. Which interaction does so is not known.
Precise statement
Given an enantiospecific difference in adsorption rate on perpendicularly magnetized ferromagnetic films, identify the mechanism (transient spin-dependent charge polarization of the molecule during approach followed by exchange interaction with the surface, or another spin-dependent interaction) and compute the size of the rate difference from a microscopic model. An answer is a calculation of spin-dependent adsorption energetics or kinetics that reproduces the measured effect size and its dependence on molecular length.
What would settle it
First-principles or model calculations of spin-dependent adsorption compared with replicated adsorption-rate measurements.