Abstract

We evaluate one-loop partition functions of higher-spin fields in thermal flat space with angular potentials; this computation is performed in arbitrary space-time dimension, and the result is a simple combination of Poincare characters. We then focus on dimension three, showing that suitable products of one-loop partition functions coincide with vacuum characters of higher-spin asymptotic symmetry algebras at null infinity. These are extensions of the bms(3) algebra that emerges in pure gravity, and we propose a way to build their unitary representations and to compute the associated characters. We also extend our investigations to supergravity and to a class of gauge theories involving higher-spin fermionic fields.