Phenomenological consequences of N = 1 supergravity theories with non-minimal kinetic energy terms for vector superfields

It is shown that N=1 supergravity theories can have a GUT scale as large as the Planck scale if the kinetic energy terms for vector superfields are non-minimal. The canonical values for sin²θ_W (M_W), α₃ (M_W) and $\text{m}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>b</mtext>}}\text{m}{}_{\mathrm{\tau }}\text{(M}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>W</mtext>}}\text{)}$ are respected. In those theories masses of SU(3), SU(2) and U(1) gauginos may be different at the unification scale. Consequences for the low-energy particle spectrum are discussed in the extreme case where one of the gaugino masses is large while the other two vanish.