N=1 supergravity grand unified theories with noncanonical kinetic energy terms

N=1 supergravity theories with noncanonical kinetic energy terms for vector as well as chiral superfields are investigated. It is shown that, in general, no relation exists among the various soft-breaking parameters at the large scale. Nevertheless the gluino cannot be much heavier than scalar quarks of the first two generations due to renormalization effects. An explicit SU(5) model is constructed where both supergravity and SU(5) are broken by the help of a 24. While ${\sin }^2$ ${\mathrm{theta}}_{\mathrm{W}}$ and $m_b$/$m_{\tau }$ can no longer be predicted, models of this type contain an additional ‘‘light’’ SU(3) octet, an SU(2) triplet, and a singlet, which might be, however, as heavy as ${10}^7$ GeV. Some general constraints on masses of superpartners are derived from the requirement of a gauge hierarchy stable against radiative corrections. Finally the possible relevance of these types of models for cosmological considerations is pointed out.