Red dashed line: average density radial profile at t = 4242 in the simulation of case A outside the vortex. Red plain line: temperature profile at the vortex azimuth at the same time. Black plain line: initial temperature profile; black dashed line: steady state temperature radial profile before the introduction of the velocity perturbation. The temperature threshold T_MRI is indicated by the vertical blue line. The two hatched areas show the buffer zones used in the simulation, the inner and outer regions where physical quantities are damped to the initial power law profile.