A theory of the novel spiral chaos state recently observed in Rayleigh
-Benard convection is proposed in terms of the importance of invasive
defects, i.e., defects that through their intrinsic dynamics expand to
take over the system. The motion of well developed spiral defects is
dominated by wave vector frustration, rather than a rotational motion
driven by a vertical vorticity field. This leads to a continuum of spi
ral frequencies, and a spiral may rotate in either sense depending on
the wave vector of its local environment. Results of extensive numeric
al work on equations modeling the convection system provide confirmati
on of these ideas.