Competition between traveling fluid waves of left and right spiral vortices and their different amplitude combinations.

Stability, bifurcation properties, and the spatiotemporal behavior of different nonlinear combination structures of spiral vortices in the counterrotating Taylor-Couette system are investigated by full numerical simulations and by coupled amplitude-equation approximations. Stable cross-spiral structures with continuously varying content of left- and right-spiral modes are found. They provide a stability transferring connection between the initially stable, axially counterpropagating wave states of pure spirals and the axially standing waves of so-called ribbons that become stable slightly farther away from the onset of vortex flow.