We obtain an algorithm computing the Chern–Schwartz–MacPherson (CSM) classes of Schubert cells in a generalized flag manifold $G/B$ . In analogy to how the ordinary divided difference operators act on Schubert classes, each CSM class of a Schubert class is obtained by applying certain Demazure–Lusztig-type operators to the CSM class of a cell of dimension one less. These operators define a representation of the Weyl group on the homology of $G/B$ . By functoriality, we deduce algorithmic expressions for CSM classes of Schubert cells in any flag manifold $G/P$ . We conjecture that the CSM classes of Schubert cells are an effective combination of (homology) Schubert classes, and prove that this is the case in several classes of examples. We also extend our results and conjecture to the torus equivariant setting.

We show that the maximum likelihood degree of a smooth very affine variety is equal to the signed topological Euler characteristic. This generalizes Orlik and Terao’s solution to Varchenko’s conjecture on complements of hyperplane arrangements to smooth very affine varieties. For very affine varieties satisfying a genericity condition at infinity, the result is further strengthened to relate the variety of critical points to the Chern–Schwartz–MacPherson class. The strengthened version recovers the geometric deletion–restriction formula of Denham et al. for arrangement complements, and generalizes Kouchnirenko’s theorem on the Newton polytope for nondegenerate hypersurfaces.