Chemical abundances of distant extremely metal-poor unevolved stars
  Aims: The purpose of our study is to determine the chemical composition of a
sample of 16 candidate Extremely Metal-Poor (EMP) dwarf stars, extracted from
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). There are two main purposes: in the first
place to verify the reliability of the metallicity estimates derived from the
SDSS spectra; in the second place to see if the abundance trends found for the
brighter nearer stars studied previously also hold for this sample of fainter,
more distant stars. Methods: We used the UVES at the VLT to obtain
high-resolution spectra of the programme stars. The abundances were determined
by an automatic analysis with the MyGIsFOS code, with the exception of lithium,
for which the abundances were determined from the measured equivalent widths of
the Li I resonance doublet. Results: All candidates are confirmed to be EMP
stars, with [Fe/H]<= -3.0. The chemical composition of the sample of stars is
similar to that of brighter and nearer samples. We measured the lithium
abundance for 12 stars and provide stringent upper limits for three other
stars, for a fourth star the upper limit is not significant, owing to the low
signal-to noise ratio of the spectrum. The "meltdown" of the Spite plateau is
confirmed, but some of the lowest metallicity stars of the sample lie on the
plateau. Conclusions: The concordance of the metallicities derived from
high-resolution spectra and those estimated from the SDSS spectra suggests that
the latter may be used to study the metallicity distribution of the halo. The
abundance pattern suggests that the halo was well mixed for all probed
metallicities and distances. The fact that at the lowest metallicities we find
stars on the Spite plateau suggests that the meltdown depends on at least
another parameter, besides metallicity. (abridged)
