  A classical description of the dynamics of a dissipative charged-particle
fluid in a quadrupole-like device is developed. It is shown that the set of the
classical fluid equations contains the same information as a complex function
satisfying a Schrodinger-like equation in which Planck's constant is replaced
by the time-varying emittance, which is related to the time-varying temperature
of the fluid. The squared modulus and the gradient of the phase of this complex
function are proportional to the fluid density and to the current velocity,
respectively. Within this framework, the dynamics of an electron bunch in a
storage ring in the presence of radiation damping and quantum-excitation is
recovered. Furthermore, both standard and generalized (including dissipation)
coherent states that may be associated with the classical particle fluids are
fully described in terms of the above formalism.
