Carrillo de la Plata, Jose AntonioJose AntonioCarrillo de la PlataDelgadino, MatiasMatiasDelgadinoPatacchini, FrancescoFrancescoPatacchini2018-11-282018-10-162018-11-282018-10-16Analysis and Applications, 20181793-6861http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/64651We analyze free energy functionals for macroscopic models of multi-agent systems interacting via pairwise attractive forces and localized repulsion. The repulsion at the level of the continuous description is modeled by pressure-related terms in the functional making it energetically favorable to spread, while the attraction is modeled through nonlocal forces. We give conditions on general entropies and interaction potentials for which neither ground states nor local minimizers exist. We show that these results are sharp for homogeneous functionals with entropies leading to degenerate diffusions while they are not sharp for fast diffusions. The particular relevant case of linear diffusion is totally clarified giving a sharp condition on the interaction potential under which the corresponding free energy functional has ground states or not.© The Author(s). This is an Open Access article published by World Scientific Publishing Company. It is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY) License. Further distribution of this work is permitted, provided the original work is properly cited.0102 Applied MathematicsGeneral MathematicsJournal Articlehttps://www.dx.doi.org/10.1142/S0219530518500276EP/P031587/1