GRB120729A: external shock origin for both the prompt gamma-ray emission and afterglow

Gamma-ray burst (GRB) 120729A was detected by Swift/BAT and Fermi/GBM, and then rapidly observed by Swift/XRT, Swift/UVOT, and ground-based telescopes. It had a single long and smooth γ-ray emission pulse, which extends continuously to the X-rays. We report Lick/KAIT observations of the source, and make temporal and spectral joint fits of the multiwavelength light curves of GRB 120729A. It exhibits achromatic light-curve behavior, consistent with the predictions of the external shock model. The light curves are decomposed into four typical phases: onset bump (Phase I), normal decay (Phase II), shallow decay (Phase III), and post-jet break (Phase IV). The spectral energy distribution (SED) evolves from prompt γ-ray emission to the afterglow with photon index from $Γ_{\rm γ}=1.36$ to $Γ\approx 1.75$. There is no obvious evolution of the SED during the afterglow. The multiwavelength light curves from γ-ray to optical can be well modeled with an external shock by considering energy injection, and a time-dependent microphysics model with $ε_B\propto t^{α_B}$ for the emission at early times, $T < T_{\rm 0} + 157$~s. Therefore, we conclude that both the prompt γ-ray emission and afterglow of GRB 120729A have the same external shock physical origin. Our model indicates that the $ε_B$ evolution can be described as a broken power-law function with $α_{\rm B,1} = 0.18 \pm 0.04$ and $α_{\rm B,2} = 0.84 \pm 0.04$. We also systematically investigate single-pulse GRBs in the Swift era, finding that only a small fraction of GRBs (GRBs 120729A, 051111, and 070318) are likely to originate from an external shock for both the prompt γ-ray emission and afterglow.