Long-range deformations in Gaussian states

Abstract Imaginary-time evolution by a local Hamiltonian cannot induce a phase transition in one dimension, but longer-range interactions may subvert such constraints. Starting from the ground state of the Kitaev Majorana chain, we modify the wave function by an imaginary-time evolution generated by a quadratic Hamiltonian with power-law couplings that enhance pairing correlations, typically of the form $1/r^{\alpha}$ , where $r$ is the distance between two sites. As the state remains Gaussian, entanglement and correlation functions can be computed analytically. We find that the decay exponent α controls three distinct infrared regimes: for $\alpha > 1$, the deformation produces only smooth crossovers at finite deformation strength, while the topological regime is reached only asymptotically as the deformation strength tends to infinity. At $\alpha = 1$, the deformation induces an immediate flow to the topological phase: an infinitesimal deformation strength drives the system to a topological regime, and in a particular case, an emergent Kramers-Wannier symmetry enforces Ising-like scaling at long distances. For $\alpha < 1$, the deformed state shows the same critical-like behavior for all non-zero deformation strength. We observe that even with arbitrarily long-range interactions, these models do not display a sharp phase transition at non-zero deformation strength.