After extensive investigations over three decades, the linear-coupling model and its equivalents have become the standard microscopic models for quantum harmonic Brownian motion, in which a harmonically bound Brownian particle is coupled to a quantum dissipative heat bath of general type modeled by infinitely many harmonic oscillators. The dynamics of these models have been studied by many authors using the quantum Langevin equation, the path-integral approach, quasi-probability distribution functions (e.g., the Wigner function), etc. However, the quantum Langevin equation is only applicable to some special problems, while other approaches all involve complicated calculations due to the inevitable reduction (i.e., contraction) operation for ignoring/eliminating the degrees of freedom of the heat bath. In this dissertation, the author proposes an improved methodology via a modified phase-space approach which employs the characteristic function (the symplectic Fourier transform of the Wigner function) as the representative of the density operator. This representative is claimed to be the most natural one for performing the reduction, not only because of its simplicity but also because of its manifestation of geometric meaning. Accordingly, it is particularly convenient for studying the time evolution of the Brownian particle with an arbitrary initial state. The power of this characteristic function is illuminated through a detailed study of several physically interesting problems, including the environment-induced damping of quantum interference, the exact quantum Fokker-Planck equations, and the relaxation of non-factorizable initial states. All derivations and calculations axe shown to be much simplified in comparison with other approaches. In addition to dynamical problems, a novel derivation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem which is valid for all quantum linear systems is presented.
