Search for rare decay $J/ psi to phi e^+ e^-$

Using a data sample of $448.1times10^6$ $psi(3686)$ events collected at $sqrt{s}=$ 3.686 GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII, we search for the rare decay $J/psi to phi e^+ e^-$ via $psi(3686) to pi^+pi^- J/psi $. No signal events are observed and the upper limit on the branching fraction is set to be $mathcal{B}(J/psi to phi e^+ e^-) < 1.2 times 10^{-7}$ at the 90% confidence level, which is still about one order of magnitude higher than the Standard Model prediction.