What math do I need to know to understand General Relativity

[micromass]

I too am trying understand GR, and have read most of MTW. I can't recall any mention of the Hausdorff property in that tome. How is it necessary to understand curvature?

A spacetime is by definition Hausdorff. So it is already needed for the very definition of what we're working with. If MTW doesn't need the Hausdorff property, then MTW is just not a rigorous book. That's ok, I'm not saying that physics books need to be mathematically rigorous. But the OP mentioned Wald, and Wald definitely is rigorous (and does cover the Hausdorff property).

 

[Kevin McHugh]

A spacetime is by definition Hausdorff. So it is already needed for the very definition of what we're working with. If MTW doesn't need the Hausdorff property, then MTW is just not a rigorous book. That's ok, I'm not saying that physics books need to be mathematically rigorous. But the OP mentioned Wald, and Wald definitely is rigorous (and does cover the Hausdorff property).

Thanks for that micromass. You do learn something new every day.