The running of the coupling strengths is usually visualized on a logarithmic scale like here
What surprises me is that the weak and the electromagnetic coupling strength do not meet before the GUT scale. Why is this the case?
A common argument in Grand Unified Theories is that all elementary forces meet at some energy scale. Above this threshold we have only one interaction, describe by a gauge group G and correspondingly only one coupling strength. The symmetry gets broken spontaneously to the standard model gauge group G→SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1) at lower energies, the coupling strength split and the new gauge bosons and possibly exotic fermions get a mass comparable to the GUT scale (this is called survival hypothesis).
Now, this is speculative beyond the standard model stuff, but in the standard model something very similar happens. The standard model gauge group SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1) gets broken at energies below the electroweak scale.
SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1)→SU(3)×U(1)
Most books and papers talk about a unified electroweak interaction. Shouldn't this mean that the electromagnetic and weak coupling strength get unified?
And bonus: Shouldn't all fermions and bosons get a mass comparable to the Electroweak scale? Even without the neutrino the mass difference between the lightest (electron) ≈0,5⋅10−3 GeV and heaviest (top) ≈170 GeV is six orders of magnitude.
Answer
Answer to the main question:
It is a well regarded fact that the terminology unified electroweak interaction is a bit of an abuse of terminology. What the term means is that both Quantum Field Theories, the Hypercharge (U(1)Y) and Weak (SU(2)L), are unified in a common framework, which predicts the low energy electromagnetism (U(1)em) through the Higgs mechanism U(1)Y×SU(2)L→U(1)em
In comparison with GUTs the terminology can be applied if you think that regular GUT setups predict unification into a gauge group which is composed of solely one (semi) simple Lie group, e.g. SU(5), SO(10) being 2 of the most popular. In this sense the couplings do unify. The electroweak unification can be regarded as a unification into a group with 2 (semi) simple Lie group factors, the SU(2) and U(1). It is in this way of thinking about it that people refer to as unification. Notice that in the later case each factor can has its own coupling, and so the couplings are not equal, i.e. do not unify.
Answer to the bonus question:
What you asked is a big open question. Fermionic masses come from Lagrangian terms called Yukawa couplings, for example for the electron yHLe+h.c.
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