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We use lattice QCD calculations of the finite-volume spectra of systems of two and three mesons to determine, for the first time, three-particle scattering amplitudes with physical quark masses. Our results are for combinations of π+ and K+, at a lattice spacing a=0.063 fm, and in the isospin-symmetric limit. We also obtain accurate results for maximal-isospin two-meson amplitudes, with those for ${\pi }^{+}{K}^{+}$and $2K^{+}$being the first determinations at the physical point. Dense lattice spectra are obtained using the stochastic Laplacian-Heaviside method, and the analysis leading to scattering amplitudes is done using the relativistic finite-volume formalism. Results are compared to chiral perturbation theory and to phenomenological fits to experimental data, finding good agreement. 

This Letter presents the first lattice QCD computation of the coupled channel πΣ−¯KN scattering amplitudes at energies near 1405 MeV. These amplitudes contain the resonance Λ(1405) with strangeness S=−1 and isospin, spin, and parity quantum numbers I(JP)=0(1/2−). However, whether there is a single resonance or two nearby resonance poles in this region is controversial theoretically and experimentally. Using single-baryon and meson-baryon operators to extract the finite-volume stationary-state energies to obtain the scattering amplitudes at slightly unphysical quark masses corresponding to mπ≈200  MeV and mK≈487  MeV, this study finds the amplitudes exhibit a virtual bound state below the πΣ threshold in addition to the established resonance pole just below the ¯KN threshold. Several parametrizations of the two-channel K matrix are employed to fit the lattice QCD results, all of which support the two-pole picture suggested by SU(3) chiral symmetry and unitarity.