Measurement of neutral strange particle production in the underlying event in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

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Measurements are presented of the production of primary K(S)0 and Lambda particles in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV in the region transverse to the leading charged-particle jet in each event. The average multiplicity and average scalar transverse momentum sum of K(S)0 and Lambda particles measured at pseudorapidities abs(eta) < 2 rise with increasing charged-particle jet pt in the range 1-10 GeV and saturate in the region 10-50 GeV. The rise and saturation of the strange particle yields and transverse momentum sums in the underlying event are similar to those observed for inclusive charged particles, which confirms the impact-parameter picture of multiple parton interactions. The results are compared to recent tunes of the PYTHIA Monte Carlo event generator. The PYTHIA simulations underestimate the data by 15-30% for K(S)0 mesons and by about 50% for Lambda baryons, a deficit similar to that observed for the inclusive strange particle production in non-single-diffractive proton-proton collisions. The constant strange- to charged-particle activity ratios and the similar trends for mesons and baryons indicate that the multiparton-interaction dynamics is decoupled from parton hadronization, which occurs at a later stage.