finally figured out the correct configuration to have nginx and php-fpm execute my php script

conf/nginx.conf

@@ -6,9 +6,10 @@ location __PATH__/ {
 
 	index index.html;
 
-    try_files $uri index.html;
 
     location ~ \.php {
+        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
+        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
         include fastcgi_params;
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php__PHPVERSION__-fpm-__NAME__.sock;
     }