On Non-extremal Instantons and Black Holes

We consider a general analysis and a specific ansatz for the study of non-supersymmetric solutions in arbitrary dimensions and various metric signatures. In all cases, we find that the conditions on the solutions can be written in terms of quadratic forms involving the gauge coupling of the theory and constants of integration associated with the scalar fields. Depending on the signature of the metric, our analysis should provide a general framework for finding non-extremal black holes, instantons, branes and S-branes.