Gravitational smearing of minimal supersymmetric unification predictions

The prediction for αₛ in the minimal supersymmetric SU(5) grand unified theory is generically subject to uncertainties arising from a gravitationally induced dimension-five operator. Unless the coefficient of this operator is small, the correlation between αₛ and the mass scale which governs proton decay to K{ν} is destroyed. Furthermore, a reduction of the experimental uncertainty in αₛ would not provide a significant test of the theory.