null is the reserved constant used in Java to represent a void reference i.e a pointer to nothing. Internally it is just a binary 0, but in the high level Java language, it is a magic constant, quite distinct from zero, that internally could have any representation.
public class Null {
static Object a = new Object();
static Object b;
public static void main(String[] args) {
Object a = new Object();
if(a != null) {
System.out.println("!= null");
}
if(b != null) {
System.out.println("null");
}
}
}