  The stationary points of the Hamiltonian H of the classical XY chain with
power-law pair interactions (i.e., decaying like r^{-{\alpha}} with the
distance) are analyzed. For a class of "spinwave-type" stationary points, the
asymptotic behavior of the Hessian determinant of H is computed analytically in
the limit of large system size. The computation is based on the Toeplitz
property of the Hessian and makes use of a Szeg\"o-type theorem. The results
serve to illustrate a recently discovered relation between phase transitions
and the properties of stationary points of classical many-body Hamiltonian
functions. In agreement with this relation, the exact phase transition energy
of the model can be read off from the behavior of the Hessian determinant for
exponents {\alpha} between zero and one. For {\alpha} between one and two, the
phase transition is not manifest in the behavior of the determinant, and it
might be necessary to consider larger classes of stationary points.
