We show how a large family of master equations, describing quantum Brownian
motion of a harmonic oscillator with translationally invariant damping, can be
derived within a phenomenological approach, based on the assumption that an
environment can be simulated by two classical stochastic forces. This family is
determined by three time-dependent correlation functions (besides the frequency
and damping coefficients), and it includes as special cases the known master
equations, whose dissipative part is bilinear with respect to the operators of
coordinate and momentum.Comment: 10 pages, no figure