Hamiltonian and Schrodinger evolution equations on finite-dimensional projective space are analyzed in detail. Hartree-Fock (HF) manifold is introduced as a submanifold of many electron projective space of states. Evolution equations, exact and linea
rized, on this manifold are studied. Comparison of matrices of linearized Schrodinger equations on many electron projective space and on the corresponding HF manifold reveals the appearance in the HF case a constraining matrix that involves matrix elements of many-electron Hamiltonian between HF state and double excited determinants. Character of dependence of transition energies on the matrix elements of constraining matrix is established by means of perturbation analysis. It is demonstrated that success of time-dependent HF theory in calculation of transition energies is mainly due to the wrong behavior of these energies as functions of matrix elements of constraining matrix as compared with the exact transition energies
