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We 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove the convergence of a particle method for the approximation of diffusive gradient flows in one dimension. This method relies on the discretization of the energy via nonoverlapping balls centered at the particles and preserves the gradient flow structure at the particle level. The strategy of the proof is based on an abstract result for the convergence of curves of maximal slope in metric spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]